Chapter 2

***************SGC***************

Sam grabbed the ringing phone located next to her bet just to shut it up. She glared at the bed side clock that read 5:32.

"Carter" she growled into the phone. She had only had three hours of sleep and was regretting not stopping the experiment early as Colonel O'Neill tried getting her to do. Oh well, it's not like she had never operated on a less than a few hours of sleep before. Expecting to hear Sgt. Siler on the other end with a gate problem, she was surprised to hear Sgt. Harriman instead. Maybe Siler was injured again, seemed to happen every week or so.

"Major it's Sgt. Harriman, the General has scheduled a briefing for 0600 and your presence is required. Dr. Jackson is on his way down, Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c are already here."

"Thank you Sgt. Is there a problem with one of the teams off-world?" Sam asked, already up and getting dressed fully awake. SG1 was often times sent on rescue missions when it was really bad. She needed a shot of caffeine to wake up properly, but a surprise brief this early in the morning usually meant something bad.

"No Major none of the off world teams have reported any problems, I was just told to have you and your team in the briefing room at 0600." He relayed the message he was given.

"Okay, thanks Sgt. I'm on my way." Sam hung up the phone. She finished getting dressed and splashed some water on her face. She brushed her teeth and put on some deodorant and was ready to go. She walked out of her room relieved the Colonel had taken her word and not placed a security detail on her door. As she rounded the corner she bumped into the Colonel.

"Sir! I'm sorry." She said automatically.

"No need Carter, just coming by to make sure you got your wake up call. You headed down?" She hated how alert he appeared since she knew that he had gotten no more sleep than she had. He had not been kidding about waiting in her lab until the end of the experiment and escorting her to her quarters. He pretty much gave her the silent treatment the whole way and in no uncertain terms informed her of what would happen if he found out that she went back to her lab.

"No sir, still have a few minutes to get a cup of coffee from the mess, you want any?" One of the things she liked about her commanding officer was that he didn't hold a grudge. It was as if the previous night was forgotten and everything was back to normal. She never had to wonder where she stood with him. It was a refreshing change from previous commanders she had worked for.

"Naw Carter, I can grab a cup in the briefing room." He frowned. "As a matter of fact, you can as well." He knew that she didn't drink that coffee, and he even knew why. Didn't mean he couldn't give her a hard time about it though.

"That is not coffee sir!" She said, having had this discussion before. "And what is there has most likely been there for hours already." Sam swiped her card at the elevator before turning to the colonel to continue their conversation. "Any idea what this is about? Thought the mission was for 0800?"

"Wow, talk about a quick change of subject, and no, I have no idea. I was just told to get my six up to the briefing room by 0600." He looked at her and grinned. Deciding to return to their original topic, "I am so going to tell Sgt. Harriman what you think about his coffee he may not talk to you for a week. You know how he likes to stay on top of stuff like that." The doors to the elevator opened and they both stepped in as well as an airman. The colonel pushed the buttons for their respective floors. "What floor airman?"

"16 Sir, Thank you." The airman faced forward and did his best to ignore the bantering between the two respected officers.

"Sir, that's not fair. You know the commissary stores a special blend of coffee for Daniel and I that we take turns bringing it in. But, if you must you must. Just keep in mind I know all sorts of thing that could get you in trouble with him also sir. Take memos for example." She refused to look at him.

"You wouldn't Carter." Colonel O'Neill feigned a look of terror, knowing she could see his reflection in the doors of the elevator.

"Oh, I would sir, unless you would like to revisit the discussion of the coffee. Sir!" Sam looked up at him and tried to act innocent.

"You wouldn't be trying to bribe a superior officer now would you Carter?" He smirked at her, placing his hands on his hips.

The elevator came to a stop on his floor and dinged.

"Saved by the bell huh, sir. So do we have a deal?" Sam needed to know if she was going to have to do damage control the next time she saw the Sgt.

"Yes, Carter we have a deal; and you have exactly fourteen minutes to get your coffee and make it to the briefing room. I'll see you there." He stepped off the elevator on level 28.

Jack walked into the briefing room with the usual bounce to his step he had following a good secession of bantering with his Major and headed over to the standard issue coffee setup along the wall. "Good morning Teal'c. Danny here yet?" He needed to remember that she was not his Major. She belonged to the Air Force.

"Good morning O'Neill, DanielJackson is indeed here, I believe he has gone to get coffee before the meeting." Teal'c stood next to the large window looking out at the stargate.

"Any idea what's going on big guy?" Jack asked as he carried his coffee to the table took his seat. Apparently Daniel shared Carters opinion on the coffee in the briefing room. He glanced at his cup and took a sip. Yep, tasted fine to him.

"None." Teal'c stoically replied still looking out at the gate.

"Ya, didn't think so." Jacked leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. His team still had a few minutes to make their appearance.

Jack glanced at the clock on the wall as he heard Daniel and Carter. Ah, right on time.

"I'm telling you Sam, I really need to get the pictures of the before the boys at area 51 get their hands on it and we never see it again. I was going to translate straight from the artifact tomorrow after you were finished with it, but it looks like we are about to get busy."

"I know Daniel, can you take them in my office? I still have a few diagnostics I need to run after we are done here." Both Daniel and Sam walked into the briefing room carrying huge cups of coffee. They were so large in fact that Jack was sure the commissary kept them on hand just for his two coffee junkies. They took their respective seats while continuing the conversation.

"What have you been able to figure out so far Sam?" Daniel had not had a chance to do more than look at the artifact since SG-4 brought in back from P4X-385 the day before but while the writing was slightly familiar, he had not been able to read it at first glance.

"Nothing yet. I ran a diagnostic yesterday and it was giving of massive amounts of power. It was so late when it finished though that I didn't get the chance to look at the test results, I was kind of ran out of my lab. I had planned on doing that before we left for our mission this morning." She glanced at the Colonel sheepishly.

"Good Morning SG1." General Hammond said as he came out of his office and took his seat a few minutes before 0600.

"Good morning General," Jack asked getting down to business. "What's going on?"

"Let's get to it then. First, your mission this morning has been postponed for the foreseeable future."

"But Sir…" Daniel started to voice his displeasure at being put off the mission for a second time in as many weeks.

"Son let me finish." He had expected the interruption. "At 0430 this morning I was contacted by Thor. All I could get out of him was that he had some rather important information to share and would be here…" In a blinding flash of white light Thor appeared sitting in his chair at the other end of the table. "Now." General Hammond glanced at the clock. It read exactly 0600.

"Thor buddy, how are you doing? It's been awhile." Jack smiled at the little alien. Of all their allies, Thor was his favorite.

"It has indeed been awhile O'Neill. I am doing well." Thor addressed Jack. "General, I have shielded the area from any possible outside surveillance. I feel that this information is not something you all would want getting into the wrong hands." Thor finished his explanation right as the phone in the briefing room started ringing.

Sam got of of her chair and answered it. To no ones surprise it was base security informing them that the security cameras were no longer operating in the briefing room or General Hammonds office.

"Just make a note in the log that Commander Thor arrived on base and the cameras will be out until he leaves." She hesitated for a minute. "No there is nothing wrong that you can fix. They will start up on their own when we get done." She hung up the phone and returned to her seat at the table.

"What's going on Thor? You have never disable surveillance before." Sam said.

"Ya, I have a feeling we are not going to like where this conversation goes are we?" Jack asked. This was not the first time Thor had visited to pass them some information or ask for help, but it was the first time he had basically cut them off from everyone in the mountain to pass along the information. "Is some bad guy coming to wipe out the planet again and you are here to warn us? I don't think we have made any new enemies. Have we?"

"Not that I am aware of Sir." Sam replied.

"No Jack, just the same old ones." Daniel Interjected.

"I too know of no other enemy's that plan to 'wipe us out' O'Neill." Teal'c said stoically.

"See Thor, no new bad guys. At least that we know of."

General Hammond felt like he was watching ping pong match trying to follow the conversation. "Okay people, let's keep it together so we can find out what information he has for us."

"No O'Neill, there is no impending doom that I am aware of. I bring information of Loki." Thor responded.

"What? Didn't get out did he? Around here doing more unsanctioned experiments on humans? Jack asked.

"No O'Neill, Loki is still a prisoner on our home world." Thor began to explain his reason for making contact. "After Loki's attempt at cloning you and his subsequent arrest we have been attempting to gain access to the files regarding his experiments. About two months ago, we were finally able to access them. My main interest were any and all files pertaining to you O'Neill. I wanted to know if there were further experiments conducted on you, and if so if any damage needed to be repaired."

"Well I guess you found something or you wouldn't be here. So what is going to happen to me now?" Jack sounded resigned to his fate at the hands of further alien intervention.

"Actually O'Neill there was one file, but it is nothing of concern. I am here because of the files we found in connection to yours, designation exp4824963"

At this announcement Sam sat up in her seat. "He had files on me? What did he do Thor and is it fixable?" Sam didn't know if she should be angry or terrified.

"Wait, did you say files?" Daniel wanted to know.

"You are not in any danger Major Carter. Before I tell you what was in the file, there was indeed another file Dr. Jackson. The second file. Exp5394. This file referred to someone named Helen Magnus. The file didn't have much information about her, mostly the experiments he conducted." Thor stopped for a minute to let them digest the information.

"So you're telling me that Loki experimented on Major Carter and some an unknown woman and that their files were attached to Colonel O'Neill? Why?" The General finally took a bit of his control back. Looking at his two best officers with concern. He remembered how disastrous the situation was the last time they dealt with Loki and his cloning. He was concerned about experiments on Sam and the 'connection' to Jack.

"I have not been able to read the whole file General it is rather extensive. This is what I do know. In 1971 Loki conducted the same experiment on Helen Magnus that he did with you O'Neill. However he found an anomaly in her DNA that he was unable to explain nor replicate in the time he had. However, according to his notes, he thought it may be the key to unlocking our problems with the cloning process. He needed more time to see how this anomaly evolved, so he came up with a plan. You, Major Carter."

Everyone at the table sat in stunned silence.

"What are you saying Thor?" The General wanted to know.

"Major Carter is a clone of this other woman in the file." Thor elaborated. "It appears that since he was unable to replicate the anomaly in Helen Magnus's DNA he tried to incorporate the existing sequence through genetic manipulation.

"Thor that is not possible. I have memories of growing up, I have pictures of my mom holding me in the hospital after I was born. It's just not possible. At the very least my father would have told me that I was adopted." Sam started to ramble bit as she was thinking it through.

"She's right Thor, I was at the hospital when she was born." Hammond interjected.

"You're not wrong General, Major Carter. You were indeed born and your parents really are your parents. You share a small portion of their DNA, just enough to make sure the pregnancy would be viable. As far as they know it was a normal pregnancy and you are their child. Loki made nine attempts at creating a clone before he came to the conclusion he was missing a major component to the process."

"A woman to carry the baby to term." Daniel interjected for the second time since the meeting started.

"You are correct Dr. Jackson. The first nine trials ended in failure within the first three months. He conclude that without a living incubator it would not work. Your parents were chosen very specifically Major Carter. He needed to find someone with a compatible blood type so her body would not reject the altered embryo. He made three more attempts before he was successful. After the first three failures he determined that he needed to incorporate small amounts of the women's DNA into the embryo so that it was not rejected by her body. He was successful and Major Carter was born in 1973, a perfect copy of Helen Magnus to include the anomaly in her DNA, which has had more time to evolve. Exactly what Loki wanted."