Season 8 Episode 20 – Moebius

Episode summary: SG-1 plus General O'Neill use the puddle jumper they found on Maybourne's planet to travel back in time 5000 years, in an attempt to salvage a fully charged ZPM. They get stranded, however, and change the timeline. The new timeline gang discover a videotape SG-1 had buried, and embark on a mission to fix the original SG-1's mistakes, to restore the correct timeline. They succeed, and the episode ends with our SG-1 finding the videotape, and the ZPM, and realising happily that they don't need to fix anything – there may be fish in Jack's pond, but it's close enough.

Chapter warning: Character death - sort of. If reading about death upsets you, don't read it. Otherwise, read on, and you'll see what I mean by the 'sort of'.

Author's note: I need you to employ a little bit of suspension of disbelief for this chapter, as from a hard sci-fi perspective it doesn't really work. I sacrificed some science on the altar of shippyness. Apologies. The reasoning by which I'm claiming this as an actual episode tag is also a little tenuous, but it was a story that had been rattling around my head since writing the 'Its Good to be King' tag, and it needed writing, and since Moebius was right there, I've jumped on the excuse to add this tag to the series. Thank you so very much to everyone who reviewed! It is very much appreciated.

"Colonel." Jack said in greeting as he strolled into his fiancée's office. "I believe you requested my assistance."

Sam stood up, beaming at him. "I did indeed, General. Did you have a pleasant flight?"

"I did, but you know, you just can't get those little packets of peanuts on the Prometheus like you can on a commercial flight." He grouched.

Her eyes widened. "You used the Prometheus' Asgard transporters?" She asked incredulously. "I thought we agreed you weren't going to do that?" She added in an undertone.

"For personal visits, yes." He agreed. "But this is a business trip. You officially requested my presence in a professional capacity." He answered smugly.

She grinned, shaking her head. "Fair enough. Are you free now?"

"I'm all yours." He said expansively.

She led him out of her office and through the winding corridors of Area 51's R&D department, now entirely under her command. Command looked good on her, he decided. She moved with a confident, authoritative grace that people couldn't help but respect and obey.

It was kinda sexy.

He stowed that thought away for later, and focussed on the job in hand. The R&D team had been working on the Ancient puddle jumper containing a fully functional time machine for months, and were still struggling with even basic functions like flying the thing a few feet off the ground. Almost everyone who had the Ancient gene and any sort of talent with Ancient technology had been sent to join the Atlantis expedition, leaving Area 51 without anyone fully capable of operating the ship. Jack, on the other hand, had shown an immediate talent with using the Ancient tech, and they even had evidence that he had successfully used both the ship and the time travel device, in the form of a videotape showing a recording of SG-1 some 5000 years in the past.

Sam had called him at the urging of her team working on the ship. They wanted to attach some sensors to his head, and monitor his brainwave patterns as he flew the ship, in order to identify what made him such a capable operator.

It got him out of the Pentagon for the day, and gave him an excuse to drop in on Sam, so Jack jumped at the chance.

"General O'Neill!" A tall, lanky man in a lab coat that Jack took for a scientist exclaimed the second he entered the hangar. "I'm Dr Friedman. I'm so glad you could come. This will be so useful, I can't begin to tell you …"

"The General's got a busy schedule, Doctor." Sam cut in. "Perhaps we could proceed with the tests."

God he loved that woman.

"Of course, Colonel Carter. General, if you would take a seat." Dr Friedman began attaching sensors to his temples, which trailed back to a suitcase-sized box.

"This will allow us to monitor your neurological activity remotely." The scientist explained. "We'll stay in radio contact, and ask you to perform a series of ship functions."

"Great." They finished hooking him up and handed him the box to carry. He hefted it, testing its weight, and then entered the puddle jumper, Sam and the doctor following close behind.

"You coming with?" He asked them both.

"Oh no, no, I'll be staying at the control booth where I can monitor your brain activity." Dr Friedman said, backing out of the puddle jumper. "Good luck, General."

He looked to Sam.

"I really shouldn't hang around, I've got a meeting in five minutes …" She said apologetically.

"Go. I'll be fine." He said with a smile, settling into the pilot's chair. "I won't break your favourite toy."

She walked over and leaned over him from behind, to whisper in his ear. "You better not. I've got plans for him, later."

He shivered pleasurably, and she patted his shoulder, leaving him to it.

Circling lazily at 30,000 feet in an invisible puddle jumper, Jack was almost bored. After each exercise the scientists had him perform, he had a good ten minutes with nothing to do but await further instructions. It wasn't like they were particularly interesting exercises either, just basic flight and systems operation.

He was more than a little shocked, therefore, when a new voice came over the radio, with a tentative request. "General, we'd like you to try activating, but not using, the time travel device."

He blinked. He couldn't possibly have heard that right. "Say again?"

"Are you able to power up the time travel device? I repeat we don't want you to actually travel, we'd just like to know if you have access to its functions."

"Are we sure that's wise?" He asked.

"Just try it, please, General."

He sighed with a shake of his head, and closed his eyes. Turn on the time travel device. Don't go anywhere. Power to the device, but stay right here.

It hummed to life. Wow, that was easy.

"Ok. It's on." He reported back.

"Uh, thank you, General! Please hold."

'Please hold'? Really? He thought scathingly. He huffed and looked back at the glowing time machine.

It had been so easy.

An idea, a crazy, terrible idea popped into his head. He couldn't. Carter would kill him. Twice, probably.

But it would be so easy …

He thought about it for a long few minutes.

"Aw hell." He said aloud. "It can't hurt to peek."

He closed his eyes, and concentrated.

He opened his eyes again. Well, the sky was still blue and cloudy. That told him precisely nothing.

He tilted the puddle jumper and wove it in a loose circle, activating the sensors and surveying the facility below.

Woah. Yeah, definitely not in 2005 anymore.

The landscape below had changed drastically, with many unfamiliar buildings built around or entirely supplanting the old ones. He couldn't even see the hangar he'd left from.

Ok. Moment of truth.

He took the puddle jumper up into orbit, and then angled back down towards Colorado Springs. This was an extreme long shot, he knew, but he hadn't exactly had time to formulate a complex plan.

He settled the puddle jumper down in as unobtrusive a place as he could, and made his way on foot to where he remembered Beth's house being, when he'd visited it with Sam in the year 2034. He wasn't entirely sure what year it was now, but he hoped it was close enough that she'd still live there.

He rang the doorbell, and waited tensely.

No answer.

"Damn it." He exclaimed. "Ok … what now. What now?"

He spun around in a circle, thinking. If he could just get in the house, he could probably use a computer or a telephone or something to contact one of them.

That was as good a plan as any. He went round the back, and inspected the rear door. He found a large rock, wrapped it in his jacket, and slammed it against the door lock, breaking the mechanism.

He was in. He'd apologise to Beth later, if he saw her. If not, he'd have to remember to buy her an especially good birthday present one year, to make up for it.

He had a look around, and was relieved to see that it all looked very familiar. He couldn't have landed too far off target, chronologically speaking. Not that he really had a target as such, he just wanted to arrive some time after their visit in 2034.

His feet took him to the living room, and the photographs he'd once stood and looked at with Sam. He grinned at the wedding photo. She didn't look any older in that one than she did right now in 2005. Good to know.

Suddenly there was a rush of wind behind him, and he found himself thrown against the wall, someone's weapon held against his head.

"Identify yourself!" A strong female voice demanded.

"Jack O'Neill." He said breathlessly, winded.

The pressure against his spine abruptly vanished, as did the weapon at his temple. "Dad?"

He spun around.

"Beth!" He exclaimed, looking at his tall, blonde daughter with an enormous grin.

"Dad!" She said, and fell into his arms, sobbing.

"Hey, what's the matter?" He asked, alarmed.

"I don't know how you're here or how you knew when to come, but thank you." She said, her voice muffled by tears and his shirt.

"Beth, what's going on?" He asked.

She looked up at him with a tear-soaked face. "It's Mom. She's dying."

He felt his stomach drop. Oh God …

Beth took him straight to the Air Force hospital at Peterson, and led him to a private ward.

"Jack?" A familiar voice said in a tone of incredulity, and he realised it was Daniel. An elderly Daniel. Wow.

"Hey Daniel." He said. There was an old woman beside him who he assumed must be his wife. "Ma'am."

"Beth, what's going on?" Daniel asked, eyes wide.

She shook her head. "I'll explain later."

She opened the door of the private room, and Jack followed her inside. Jake and Serena were sitting on either side of the hospital bed, and both exclaimed at his presence but were quickly shooed outside by Beth.

Jack only had eyes for the person in the bed. "Sam?"

"Hey Jack." She said weakly, her face splitting into a wide smile. "I knew you'd be back."

He sat down at her side in the chair Jake had vacated, and noted Beth had left and closed the door, leaving the two of them alone.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Lab accident, if you can believe that." Sam said with a chuckle. "I won't give you the details. You understand."

"Beth wouldn't even tell me the date." He said. "Does it really matter that much if I know what day you die, or how? I'm already long gone by this point, aren't I?"

She reached for his hand blindly, and he took hold of her hand in both of his. "It's not about you knowing. It's about what you might tell me."

"Oh." He looked at her, really looked. She looked exactly like his Sam … just thirty or so years older. In recent weeks as his Sam had settled into her command position, he'd even noticed that she was beginning to remind him of this older Sam. It was something about her poise, her attitude and demeanour in command, which was very reminiscent of the General.

This Sam, however, also looked weak, and drawn, and tired. "How long?" He asked.

"The doctors say it'll be hours, if that." She said, tears springing into her eyes. "You don't have to stay."

"I'm not going anywhere." He said thickly, emotions starting to choke him. "You hear me Carter? I'm not leaving you."

Her tears escaped down her cheeks, and he stroked them away tenderly. "Will you let my kids back in?"

He nodded and got up, opening the door and beckoning the others inside. He went back to the same seat at Sam's head, taking hold of her hand again, while Beth, Jake, Serena, Daniel and his wife gathered around.

"Where's Cassie?" He asked.

"She'll be back in a minute, she's just talking to the doctors." Daniel answered.

"How did you know to come?" Jake asked him, and Jack looked up at his son for a long moment, glad to see him again.

"I didn't, exactly. I just had an opportunity to come, and I figured, what the hell …"

"I apologise in advance for hitting you." Sam said with a weak chuckle. "Or maybe it's not in advance … maybe it's just very, very late …"

Jack blinked at her, surprised at the information that his Sam was going to thump him for this, and concerned at the slur in the General's voice. "Thanks for the warning."

She didn't answer. Jack looked around the room at the assembled family. He noticed that Serena did - as he had suspected she might - look a lot more like her mother than Daniel. He wondered idly who the woman who'd won Daniel's heart was, and then realised Serena was staring back at him.

"It's good to see you again." Serena said to him with a small smile.

"You too, kid." Jack said.

Cassie came in then, and went straight to Jack and hugged him tightly. "About time. I thought you weren't coming."

Jack was too confused to answer.

There was a beeping then from one of Sam's monitors, and Cassie ordered them all out. They congregated in the hallway outside, waiting, and after a few minutes Cassie emerged, crying.

"Jack, she wants you."

He squeezed her shoulder on the way past and went back into the room. He walked straight to Sam.

"Jack …" She said faintly.

He realised Cassie had disconnected Sam from all of the monitors around her bed, so he gathered her into his arms.

"I'm here." He said, tears forming and falling down his cheeks. "I'm here Sam, it's ok."

She sighed, snuggling into his chest, and then grew impossibly still.

She was gone.

Jack sat in the corridor a little while later, stunned. He knew his Sam was alive and well in 2005. He knew she'd outlive him by years. But he couldn't help but feel a deep bone-aching grief at having just held her in his arms as she died.

He looked around at the assembled family, and realised he probably shouldn't still be here. They didn't need a reminder of having lost him, too, at a time like this.

"I'm gonna go." He said, standing.

No one argued, although they all insisted on giving him a long hug goodbye – even Daniel's wife, whose name he wasn't even allowed to know. He took an especially long time saying goodbye to Beth and Jake. He hated to leave them at a time like this, but the truth was he'd left them a long time ago, when he'd died.

Daniel drove him back to the puddle jumper.

"I'm glad you were here." Daniel told him as they said goodbye outside the ship.

"So am I." Jack said. "Even though this wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I came."

"You can tell her she won't die alone. She'll take comfort in that, when you're gone."

Jack nodded. "Take care of them for me."

Daniel smiled. "I already have been. I don't intend to stop."

"Good." He said. "Good. I should …"

"Yeah, go."

Jack walked back to the puddle jumper.

"Oh, and Jack?" Daniel called, and Jack paused in the doorway. "When the time comes … I'll need you to yell at me and tell me to just marry her already."

Jack grinned. "You can count on it."

Daniel grinned back and waved goodbye, turning stiffly to walk back to his car. Jack watched his old friend walk away for a moment, and then closed the door of the ship behind him.

He sat down heavily in the pilot's seat, activating the invisibility cloak and taking a moment to gather his scattered wits.

A thought occurred to him. I wish she'd told me exactly where she's going to hit me.

30,000 feet above Area 51, Jack focussed very carefully on the exact time and date he wanted to get back to. The time machine pulsed, and his radio was suddenly alive with noise.

"I repeat, General O'Neill, please respond." That was Dr Feedman – Freeman? He couldn't remember.

He keyed his radio. "This is O'Neill. Apologies for that, ground control. Am I cleared to land?"

"You're cleared to land immediately." That was Sam's voice. She sounded pissed.

"Copy that." He said with a wince.

He guided the puddle jumper back to the hangar, and realised belatedly that he'd left his jacket in the future, in Beth's house, wrapped around the rock he'd used to break in with. Oops.

He opened the puddle jumper door, and sheepishly exited to face a very, very angry Lt. Col. Samantha Carter. He was so glad to see her that he wanted nothing more than to sweep her into his arms there and then, audience be damned, but the look on her face warned him that would be a very bad idea.

"What happened, General?" She said stiffly, obviously caught between needing to maintain some professional decorum in front of the scientists, and wanting very badly to beat the crap out of him for his singular act of stupidity.

"Little mishap with the time machine." He said. "Nothing to worry about."

"You time travelled?" The tall scientist with the forgettable name said, inserting himself unwisely into the standoff between the two Air Force officers.

"Just a little. It's probably not a good idea to activate that thing." He said, walking back into the puddle jumper and bringing out the box with the sensor leads he'd removed from his head.

"Where's your jacket, sir?" Sam asked coolly.

Busted. "Uh …"

"General, if you don't mind, I'd like to make a full log of your experience when the time machine activated ..." The tall scientist said, but Sam cut him off.

"Perhaps the General and I should have a full debriefing first in my office." She said to the scientists, while her narrowed eyes never left Jack's.

"Right." Jack said. "Good idea. After you."

She turned on her heel and stalked off towards her office, and he followed close behind, trying not to look as though he was a kid being marched to the principal's office, and probably failing miserably.

In her office, she shut the door, and then leaned back against it. "Tell me, that you didn't do that on purpose." She ordered him in a low and dangerous voice.

He resisted the urge to shield the more sensitive bits of his anatomy, and answered. "I would, but the thing is we agreed never to lie to each other."

Her eyes flashed with fire, and she walked right up to him, fists balled. "What the hell were you thinking, Jack? You could have ruined everything!"

"I agree it was a stupid decision, but I'm not sorry I did it. And one day you won't be either."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I was supposed to be there. I went to the future, after 2034. I don't know the exact date, or even the year. But I ended up being there when you died. I was there when you died. I held you –" And to his absolute horror, he realised he was crying. In his dress blues. On a military base. Shit.

Sam threw her arms around him and held him.

"Oh my God." She breathed. "Jack."

He pulled himself together and cleared his throat. "Anyway. That's where I was. And I lost my jacket breaking into Beth's house."

Sam sighed and shook her head. "I should still beat the crap out of you for even thinking of doing that."

"Yeah. Actually, future you apologised for having hit me in the course of this conversation. I almost stopped on the way back here for some protective gear."

"Maybe I'll hit you the next time you scare the hell out of me." She offered with a sardonic smile.

"Great. I'll look forward to it." He chuckled. "What are we going to say to those scientists? Feelman, whatever his name is?"

"Dr Friedman." Sam corrected absently, and thought for a moment. "They're the ones who asked you to activate the time machine, right?"

He nodded.

"Well … that was incredibly irresponsible thing for them to do, and I'll be making that very clear to them. You can just say that as the time machine was active, you accidentally travelled to the future. You realised what happened, and came back. They don't need to know you were gone for anything more than a few seconds."

"And my jacket?"

"You got too hot and stowed it in the ship's trash disposal thinking it was a cupboard. What do they care?" She said with a wry smile.

Jack let out a deep breath. "Ok. I can sell that."

Sam looked at him pensively.

"What?" He asked.

"I want to ask …"

"Go ahead."

"Was it …" She gave an exasperated sigh and tried again. "Was it painful? My death?"

Jack smiled sadly at her and pulled her close for a gentle hug. "No. Cassie had you on the good drugs. You were in the hospital. The kids were there."

Sam sniffed, emotional all of a sudden. "Ok. I'm glad."

He rubbed her back soothingly and breathed in her scent, glad for the chance to just hold her.

"I'm staying with you tonight." He informed her.

"Damn right you are." She agreed with a chuckle.

"Maybe I'll make it a long weekend. Work out of an office here tomorrow."

"I'd like that."

"I'll make some calls."

"Ok."

He pulled away enough to kiss her, and then smiled at her softly before heading for the door.

"Jack." She stopped him just before he opened it. She walked up to him and punched him in the upper arm, with a fair bit of force. "That's for scaring me."

"Ow." He grumbled, rubbing his arm.

"Wouldn't want to make myself a liar, now, would I?" She said, grinning.

"Smart-ass." He griped back fondly.

"Come on. You have some scientists to brief, and I have some scientists to yell at."

"As long as I get to have dinner with one scientist in particular tonight, I'm game."

"I'm sure Friedman will be touched." She joked.

"Funny, Carter. Very funny."

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