Our Legacy - Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement.
Summary: A gate accident strands Jack and Sam in the year 2034, when the SGC is under the command of General Samantha Carter. But all is not as it seems, and to get home, they first need to save the world.
Beth arrived a little after midnight, slipping silently into the room and then peering around wide-eyed, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.
"Over here." Jack said quietly from the sitting area. "Carter's asleep, give me a minute to wake her up."
Beth perched on the desk, while Jack stood, shaking his legs to wake his stiff joints. He turned on a lamp, and crossed to the bed.
"Wakey wakey Carter." He said, nudging her shoulder. She jumped awake, startled, and then blinked at him in the low light created by the lamp.
"She's here." He told her. Sam looked over to Beth, who gave her a little wave in greeting.
"I'm awake." Sam announced sleepily. Jack smirked fondly and backed off, returning to his chair.
A few moments later, in her Air Force standard issue pyjamas, Sam sat down in the chair next to his, curling her legs under her. They both looked to the young woman in front of them expectantly.
"Ok. I have a lot to tell you, and some of it's pretty messed up, but the good news is I can get you home – or at least, I know someone who can."
Sam perked up a little in her seat. "Who?"
Beth grinned. "You, actually."
Sam blinked at her, completely confused.
Jack chuckled. "Take pity on her, she only just woke up." He chided the girl.
"Ok, not you you. The you from the present. My present, your future. The you from 2034."
"She said she didn't know how to get us home." Sam argued.
Beth grimaced. "Yeah … that wasn't her."
Both air force officers gaped at her. "Come again?"
"She's an imposter. The real General Samantha Carter was taken prisoner months ago. The woman you spoke to yesterday was an agent who trained for several years to replace her convincingly, using a device that lets her alter her outward appearance."
"Aha! I knew it! I knew something wasn't right with her!" Jack crowed.
"I imagine she wasn't too happy to see you." Beth agreed with a smile. "If anyone was going to see through the ruse it was probably going to be you."
"But you did." Sam pointed out.
"That's different, I had some warning. Maybe I should start at the beginning." She pulled out the desk chair and sat facing them. "The fake General Carter told you yesterday that she didn't travel to the future as you have done, correct?"
"Yes." Sam confirmed.
"The truth is, the real Sam Carter did. She and … and Jack just didn't report it. When they got back to their own time they made sure there was no official record of them having time travelled, so that the fake General Carter in 2034 wouldn't be expecting it."
"Oh thank God for that." Sam exclaimed. "I was tying my brain in knots trying to figure out how it was even possible for this not to have happened to her too."
Beth grinned. "She said you'd like that."
"So she – the real Carter – warned you that this would happen, that we'd show up from the past?" Jack asked.
"Yes. I'm the only person she told. The truth is, Earth is in some trouble at the moment. The people who took her are very powerful, and very dangerous. They're replacing key people in positions of power with their own agents, who study their targets' lives, mannerisms, thought processes … etcetera, and then use 'mimic' devices to perfectly replicate the target's outward appearance. It's all in an effort to – basically – take over the world."
"Seriously?"
"It's a little more complicated and less melodramatic than that, but yes, pretty much."
"Wait, if the real General Carter has my memories, she must have known this was coming – that she'd be captured and replaced." Sam said. "Why didn't she just stop it from happening?"
Beth frowned and twisted her hands together nervously. "We tried. We took all sorts of precautions, but we just didn't have enough information. The person who replaced her is a pro, who literally studied her and nothing else for years in order to imitate her flawlessly. I'm ashamed to admit I'm still not a hundred percent certain when exactly they replaced her."
"The best she could do was to tell me everything, so that I could keep watch for you and then enlist your help to free her. I'm the only one she told because there are so many people who have been replaced now, that she didn't know who she could trust."
"And she knows how to get us home?" Jack asked.
Beth nodded. "She had thirty years to search the galaxy discreetly for the device Cassie will use to send you home in 2049. She found it."
"And of course, she knew she would be able to find it, because when she was in my position …"
"… the General Carter she encountered had found it. Exactly."
"Oy." Jack grouched, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes.
"It's a little complicated, I know." Beth sympathised. "But it really is good news. You now have absolute proof that you will be going back to your own time."
"I don't suppose she gave you any details about exactly how we could find her and free her, did she?" Sam asked.
Beth grinned. "As a matter of fact, she did."
"And you haven't tried to rescue her yourself, because …?" Jack asked.
Beth's smile faded abruptly. "She forbade me to. Things have to happen in exactly the same way that they happened for her last time around. That's the other reason she only told me – she trusted me not to ruin the timeline."
"And why exactly did she trust you with all of this?" Jack asked. "Who are you?"
Beth squirmed a little, a torn expression on her face as she looked between Jack and Sam.
"I'm her daughter."
Sam stared at the girl who would be her daughter in shock.
"How old are you?" She asked.
"That falls into the category of things I'm not allowed to tell you." Beth hedged. "If I did, you could count backwards and figure out when you're going to get pregnant with me, and … well, I'd really like to avoid ruining the timeline in such a way that I never get born."
"That's fair enough."
Sam wanted desperately to know who Beth's father was, but held herself back from asking, afraid the answer wouldn't be the one she wanted.
Jack cleared his throat. "So, how and when are you going to get us out of here, so that we can go and rescue your mother?"
"That part is relatively easy. They've got you under a very light guard, so we just need to employ a little subterfuge so you can give them the slip. I already have something arranged, for 0700 tomorrow morning. I'll knock on your door a few minutes before 0700 to pick you up for breakfast, and then there will be a distraction, and you can get away from the guards. Then we escape up through the emergency access hatch."
"This distraction - are there other people involved?" Jack asked.
Beth nodded. "Once you arrived here and there was no longer any risk to the timeline if we acted too soon, I was able to brief my brother and my cousin on the situation, and they will be helping us from now on."
"Your brother?" Sam asked, with a squeak that she hoped the colonel hadn't noticed.
"Oh! Right, yeah, I have a brother. Jake. He's a Lieutenant in the Air Force. The other person helping us is Serena Jackson. She's who I meant when I said my 'cousin', although we're not blood-related. She's Daniel's daughter."
"Are you sure it's not going to cause any problems if the three of you suddenly go AWOL?" Jack asked.
"Jake's the only one of us who's Air Force, and Mom assured me he'd be cleared of any wrong-doing once we've rescued her. Trust me, she'd never have told me to involve him if it would hurt his career. Serena and I are civilians, so we'll be fine."
"Let me guess – she's an archaeologist!" Jack said with a grin.
"Anthropologist, actually."
"D'oh!"
"Who's her mother?" Sam asked curiously.
"Oh, you haven't met her yet. I shouldn't really say." Beth said with an apologetic look.
"Still, it's nice to know that Daniel ends up with someone." Jack said. "Where is he these days anyway? And Teal'c?"
"Daniel works for the IOA – The International Oversight Advisory – as an archaeologist. He studies artefacts that come back from other planets, occasionally goes out himself on digs, and he has a hand in training new SGC teams in first contact situations and cultural sensitivity – although Serena's started taking over that in recent years. Teal'c … Teal'c is dead. I'm sorry I can't tell you when or how."
There was a beat of silence while they absorbed this.
"Listen, um, there's something else. Mom said that until I'd explained everything to you, I should hold this back, but that there was no point keeping it from you in the long run because it would be bound to come up one way or another." She looked uneasily between the two of them. "I'm sure it hasn't escaped your notice that I haven't yet told you my last name."
"I'm assuming it's not 'Carter'." Jack guessed.
"No, it's not." She took a deep breath, and then looked straight at Jack. "My full name is Dr Elizabeth O'Neill. My little brother is Lt. Jacob O'Neill."
Sam looked at Jack in shock. He was staring straight at Beth. "O'Neill?" He repeated in a choked voice. "With two 'L's?"
Beth smirked, and suddenly Sam couldn't believe she hadn't seen the resemblance before. The girl even had Jack's eyes. "You betcha. Hi Dad. It's really great to see you again."
Sam felt her stomach drop a little bit. "Again?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry, Dad, you died prior to 2034."
Sam watched Jack's face, but saw only calm resignation there. "Figures. I'd be nearly eighty if I had been alive still. I never felt like the type who would live forever."
"I'm sure you understand that I can't tell you how much prior to 2034 …"
Jack waved her off. "Don't sweat it, I get it. So … you're my kid, and you're Carter's kid. As in …"
"You were married. Happily."
He glanced at Sam for the first time since Beth had dropped the bombshell that she was theirs. "So, I guess we have that to look forward to." He said with a small soft smile. Sam's heart skipped a beat and her mouth went dry.
"Yeah, on that note, Dad, do me a favour and tread carefully when you see Mom. She misses you a lot, and I think seeing you again is going to be hard for her."
Sam looked down at her hands, determinedly avoiding Jack's gaze.
"I'll do my best."
"I know you have recent some experience with that anyway, from when the alternate Sam Carter came through the quantum mirror – she was a recent widow of the alternate Jack O'Neill, right?"
"Have you read all of our mission reports?" Sam asked, impressed.
"Of course I have. All of the ones up till your trip to 2034 anyway. I wanted to be prepared."
"Of course you did." Jack smirked. He nudged Sam with his elbow. "I wonder who she gets that from?"
Sam rolled her eyes and shared a grin with Beth.
The girl looked at her watch suddenly, and stood. "I have to go, or I'll be stuck in here for another two hours until the next exit window. I should let you get some sleep anyway. We'll have a long day tomorrow."
Jack and Sam stood too, and the three stood in an awkward family unit.
"See you tomorrow." Jack said after a long moment.
Beth smiled. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight." Sam replied.
Beth opened the door and slipped out.
Jack and Sam stayed standing side by side, looking at the door.
"So." Jack said.
"So." Sam echoed.
"Married with two kids."
"Apparently."
"Sweet."