NOT FOR SALE

This File was created for

educational, scholarly

use ONLY.

STARGATE

SG1

ROSWELL

SONNY WHITELAW & JENNIFER FALLON

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc, (trans.) after this, therefore because this (n): the logical fallacy of believing that temporal succession implies causation.

CHAPTER ONE

“Kill the unbelievers!”

Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell knew to the second how long it took to dial Earth and for the Stargate worm-hole to stabilize. With a couple of hundred screaming villagers on their sixes, all of whom seemed to be waving ugly looking pikes and other various nasty, not to mention dangerously pointy objects at them, they were going to come up short by about eighteen seconds.

A familiar chorus of, “All hallowed are the Ori!” accompanied the murderous mob around the bend in the track where it opened out on to...

“Okay, this is going to be fun.”

Last night's rain had transformed the ground around the Stargate platform into the perfect venue for the next intergalac-tic mud-wrestling championships. Now Cam understood why previous SG teams, as well as remarking on the issue of the local hospitality—or lack of it—had labeled this place Bayou. A full day's rain had turned the already sodden ground around the platform into a puke-green quagmire. If Sam's progress through the stuff as she fought the sucking, thigh deep crud to reach the DHD was anything to go by, his eighteen-second shortfall was wildly optimistic.

And the stench... Cam's olfactory nerves recoiled as he tried to identify it. Nope. He couldn't name it. This stuff was in a league of its own. A whole new species of putrescence.

“Butcher the blasphemers!”

Daniel Jackson, who'd been a dozen steps ahead of Cam and Teal'c, hesitated on the edge of the bog.

“After you, Jackson,” Cam invited, turning to cover his escape. With a grimace, Daniel lifted his P-90 above his head and waded into the slop, while Cam raised his weapon and planted a short burst into the mulchy ground just ahead of the oncoming mob.

Pivoting around beside Cam, Teal'c also fired off a long burst into the base of a tree before bolting after Daniel, changing clips as he went. The C4 Teal'c had thoughtfully planted at the tree's base on their arrival exploded, temporarily halting the onslaught.

“We will defend ourselves!” Cam yelled, the warning more a matter of protocol that any real hope the bucolic citizens of this particular hellhole of a planet were listening, even if they could hear him after that explosion. Still, if the UN ever took it into its collective head to play off-world diplomacy, he could honestly say that he'd given fair warning. Several times.

“Wasting your breath,” Daniel yelled back at Cam, pushing through the mud after Sam. “They're convinced death is the road to Ascension.”

“I know. I just keep hoping.”

Different planet; same fundamentalist argument. First it was the Goa'uld playing god, now the Ori. As far as Cam was concerned they were both parasites, it was only a question of magnitude.

“Strike down the unbelievers!”

And to increase the crap factor by a few notches, the not-so good people of Bayou weren't baulking at making the whole religious crusade thing a family affair.

The first to recover from the explosion were a horde of raggedy-assed kids, armed with slingshots, long knives, and the glazed expressions of fanatics-in-training. They clambered over the tree that the C4 and Teal'c's shooting had brought down and just kept right on coming.

Cam raised his weapon again. If what they'd witnessed in the village was anything to go by, these same kids had been responsible for butchering the diplomatic team the International Oversight Committee had—in all its naive, bureaucratic wisdom—seen fit to send to this planet.

“All hallowed are the Ori!”

A short burst from either Daniel or Sam's P-90 behind him sent a splattering of mossy clods into the kids' faces, slowing them just long enough for Cam to turn and size up his team-mates' progress. Daniel was fighting the suction every step. Teal'c—whose feet were just smaller than those of a Kodiak bear—had been reduced to plowing his way through using brute force. Opting for a different tactic, Cam took the mud at speed, managing to get well ahead of his Jaffa teammate before the goop sucking at his boots slowed him to Daniel's pace.

“Destroy the heretics!”

Being lighter, Sam was having more success. She had almost reached the platform. That might buy them an additional couple of seconds. Still not enough, but once he and Daniel got through this gunk, they'd be able to provide suppressing fire from the elevated position of the Stargate platform. Assuming suppressing fire actually worked on people hell-bent on martyrdom.

“Hallowed be the Ori!”

Something hit Cam's backpack. It was followed a moment later by several more thumps from what he was certain were the small, spiked iron balls the Bayou kids used in their slingshots. If one of the dartballs connected with his head, it would penetrate his skull just far enough to puncture the meninges and allow the fluid to leak out. Enough dartballs would eventually kill him.

Eventually.

He knew that because one of the Marines who'd gone missing with the diplomatic team three days earlier had still been alive when they'd found him hanging in the trees just outside the village. A veteran of a hundred encounters with the Goa'uld, the sergeant had stubbornly refused to die until he'd been able to report exactly what had happened to the eight-man IOC delegation to Bay0ou.

“Kill the blasphemers!”

Another dartball struck Cam, this time in the fleshy part of his butt.

“Ow!” That was gonna smart when it came time to sitting down and writing up this report. And since his reports tended to be influenced by how much pain he was in at the time, he wasn't going to have a whole lot of nice things to say about this place. “Sam?”

“Almost there!” Carter had reached the platform. She grabbed the pitted base of the DHD to haul herself out.

''Hallowed are the Ori!”

The stinging in his butt was real, but it was the burning in Cam's quadriceps that spurred him on. It was a familiar pain; an old friend that, along with a promise from General O'Neill that he could have anything he wanted, had hauled him out of a body brace after his F-302 had plowed in at the Battle of Antarctica.

Focused on making his way through the thigh-deep muck, Cam had tuned out both the smell and relatively unimaginative rhetoric until, “Strike down their woman!” caught his attention.

He glanced over his shoulder—and ducked to avoid one of the incoming dartballs. Okay, that was a mistake, because it put his face in the direct path of another dart, which sliced open his cheek and took out a piece of his nose as it passed. Still, that didn't bother him nearly so much as the realization that the villagers, who'd grown up running through Bayou mud, had recovered any ground they'd lost through smoke grenades, C4, and Teal'c's one man deforestation program.

SG-1 would be lucky if they had eighteen seconds.

Sam was punching in the first symbol on the DHD when one of the golf ball sized missiles caught her in the calf. She kicked her foot back, shaking the thing off like a pesky mosquito, but then a whole slew of them started pounding her legs. Specks of blood appeared through the small rips in her pants.

“Blessed are the Ori!”

Daniel hauled himself up onto the platform, spread out his arms and, dripping mud and looking more like the Creature from the Black Lagoon than an archeologist, stooped over Sam to shield her. Their attackers responded by fanning out, continuing their barrage on Sam from different angles, knocking her arms aside before she could finish the dialing sequence. Angling her body lower, she finished punching in the symbols with her elbow.

The amber glow of the first chevron locking into place in the Stargate offered Cam only minimal reassurance. While his pack protected his back, and hunching forward kept his head from taking any hits, nothing could stop the darts striking his arms and butt. They were all taking a pounding. Dozens of tiny gashes down Daniel's arms and legs were turning dark with blood. The Chinese might've invented death by a thou-sand cuts, but these slingshot-wielding youths from the Village of the Damned had discovered a whole new variation. “Kill the heretics!”

“That chanting is really starting to piss me off.”

The third chevron locked. More dartballs zinged past, lodging in Daniel and Sam's pack and legs while they angled around to take cover behind the DHD. The darts started bouncing off the Stargate and DHD platform with staccato metallic twangs.

Lunging forward, Cam grabbed the edge of the platform, hauled himself out of the mud and, almost slipping on the slimy crud, spun around and brought his weapon to bear. “Crap.”

Teal'c was wrenching his body about, trying to fling off two greasy-haired kids hanging from his arms. The bloodied punctures in his neck were testimony to the number of dartballs he'd taken. Hopefully the recent addition of curly black hair on the Jaffa's head had prevented the spikes from penetrating his skull too deeply.

The fifth chevron slammed into place with a solid reassuringthunk.

“Stop the blasphemers!”

Completely unmindful of his pals, one of the youths raised a long knife, flashed a set of cavity-filled teeth, and took a swing at Teal'c's momentarily exposed armpit. The knife abruptly flew backwards, its force propelling the wielder into the green slop. The shot rang in Cam's ears. He glanced at Daniel. For a civilian, he wasn't a bad marksman. But Teal'c was in peril. Three more kids had converged on him, swinging curved knives. The adults were right behind them, egging them on.

“Hallowed are those who kill the unbelievers!”

More fire from Daniel targeted the weapons rather than the wielders, but then one guy picked up a boy of about seven and flung him at Teal'c's head, distracting the Jaffa so the rest of his brood could slash at his exposed chest. A spark of cold rage briefly tempted Cam into emptying the contents of his P-90 into the whole pious pack of 'em. What kind of sick religion used kids as weapons?

He sighted his gun. An unwelcome memory dredged up by Varrick's godforsaken machine momentarily filled his vision: three trucks crammed full of refugees destroyed in a fiery blast from a bomb he'd dropped on them. He never did learn exactly how many civilians—how many kids—he'd killed that day, because from fifteen hundred feet and four hundred knots, there wasn't a whole lot to see.

And then the event horizon shot out behind him like a blast from a jet engine punching through water.

“Destroy all those who do not believe!”

Cam fired off a long burst in an arc around his teammate. The impact of the bullets plowing into the gunk sent needle sharp spurts of mud out everywhere, startling the kids into letting Teal'c go. Others still clambering to reach him, were momentarily driven back just long enough for Teal'c, eyes narrowed in determination, to surge forward, grab the platform and haul himself out.

“This is SG-1. We're coming in hot!” Sam announced into her radio.

“The Priors,” a woman cried out over the melee with a manic squeal of delight. “The Priors come to vanquish the enemy!”

And that's when Cam saw two...no three—wasn't that kind of overkill for a backwater planet?—of the baldy priors appear from behind the nearby trees. The large aquamarine stones set in the tips of their wooden staffs glowed ominously

Why did he get the feeling that this was planned?

Teal'c staggered to the 'gate while Cam and Daniel continued to lay down suppressing fire.

“C'mon!” Sam yelled.

The last thing Cam saw before he and his teammates ducked low and backed into the wormhole were three bright beams of light shooting from the priors' staffs, over their heads and into the Stargate.

CHAPTER TWO

“Close the iris!”

General Jack O'Neill squinted through the smoke flooding the 'gate room. He wasn't certain if Sergeant Walter Harriman had heard his order above the shriek of wrenching metal, because the iris remained obdurately open. As did the wormhole. Crap.

“It's not responding, sir!”

Glancing in Harriman's direction, Jack saw that the palm scanner controlling the Stargate's protective iris was a lifeless dull gray—unlike the dialing computer, which, along with the bank of monitors and electronic devices lining the walls, was spitting out an alarming spray of pyrotechnics. “Blast doors?” Jack shouted.

“Nothing, sir!”

Carter's warning that SG-1 was coming in hot had brought Jack from his temporary office and down into the control room. Before he could even ask what was going on, the entire underground complex had begun shaking.

Beneath the buildings inside Cheyenne Mountain were thirteen hundred and nineteen springs, each weighing a thousand pounds. In the event of a major earthquake or nuclear attack the springs were supposed to allow horizontal movement of the complex by as much as a foot in all directions. Wondering if the engineers had factored vertical movement into their equations, Jack cringed, ducking out of the way of a light fixture crashing down from the ceiling—which placed him squarely into the oncoming path of Walter and his chair. The sergeant had flung himself backward to avoid a nasty looking electrical discharge from the bank of monitors. The collision tossed Walter out of his seat, and the migraine-inducting woodpeckers that had earlier taken up residence in Jack's head, now launched an additional offensive on his knees. Legs buckling, he cracked his skull on the bench on his way to the floor. He made a stab at standing, but every surface was bucking and heaving like a steer on steroids. If the frames supporting the strengthened Plexiglas overlooking the 'gate room warped—

Right on cue, a loud crack resolved itself into an even louder splintering. So much for the shatterproof Plexiglas. Something else—a glass panel by the sounds of it—also exploded, and an SFA who'd been monitoring a bank of computers, screamed and fell back on top of Jack, shoving him onto the leg of the upturned chair. Legs twisted awkwardly, the woodpeckers inside Jack's knees double-timed their hammering while a second squadron dive-bombed his chest. A rib, maybe two objected loudly. At least there was no telltale snap of bones.

The watery blue reflections from the event horizon vanished and the juddering ceased. Any sense of relief that Jack felt was offset by the near certainty that SG-1 had not made it through.

Oh, and there was also the matter of a faucet of warm blood pulsing into his face.

Scrambling out from beneath the injured SFA, Jack reached up to the bench, grabbed the intercom and bawled, “Medical team to the control room, now!” The whoosh of fire extinguishers and trumpeting of klaxons competed with the screams of shock and mortal terror from the kid lying on the ground a few feet away, who was desperately trying to clamp his hand over a jet of blood pulsing from a short, deep slice in his neck. The SFA was new on the base and Jack didn't even know his name. Impatiently, he batted the kid's hand away and shoved his thumb into the wound, holding the flaps of the artery closed—he hoped.

Looking around the chaos in the control room, his gut clenched. “SG-1?” he demanded.

Walter found his glasses—one lens fractured—and pulled himself to his feet. He peered down into the 'gate room. Jack couldn't hear the reply above the noise, but he could see the movement of the sergeant's lips and the negative shake of his head. Turning to look down at him, the sergeant brought one hand to the earpiece of his com unit and shouted loudly, “Sir, reports coming in confirm that we're not under attack from the surface. Main computer is down, backup systems will be online in a moment.”

While part of Jack was focused on keeping the injured airman from bleeding out, his overriding concern was for SG-1. Some sort of weird light had preceded the team through the Stargate. This particular brand of weirdness had a distinct whiff of Ori, but since Jack had only been back at the SGC for all of an hour, he wasn't completely up to speed on their latest gadgets. “Any idea what just happened?”

“The moment we have power I'll run a diagnostic, sir, but from what I can tell it appears that the wormhole was... diverted.” Walter's voice was steady, but the harsh shadows cast by the emergency lighting emphasized the concern on his face. “Sir, are you injured?”

“Nope.” Several body parts screamed liar. “Diverted? Since when have wormholes been divertable? Maybe SG-1 never left.”

“No sir, SG-1 definitely were in transit.”

Recollections of a busted leg and his ass being frozen into a Popsicle waved a red flag. To the best of Jack's knowledge there were no spare Stargates stashed elsewhere on Earth, which meant Mitchell, Carter, Daniel and Teal'c could be anywhere.

The klaxons abruptly fell silent and the main lights—those that hadn't shattered—came back on. The injured airman started thrashing around under Jack's hand, which resulted in another crimson spray. Rapidly repositioning his grip to stem the flow, Jack injected considerably more calm into his voice than he felt right now, and said, “Got a little leak, here, son, so you need to hold still till the doc arrives.”

Panicked eyes met his, but the two stars on Jack's shoulder carried an authority that held more weight than words alone. The airman's breathing hitched as he made a conscious effort to calm himself, then he took in Jack's blood-soaked face and chest, and mumbled, “Sorry, sir.”

The clump of boots running down metal steps signaled the arrival of the medical team. Jack's gaze remained glued to the kid's, his mind rummaging through an assortment of possibilities, all bad. “No sweat, son. Needed dry-cleaning anyway. First time you've been injured?” He glanced around when Lam squatted beside him.

“Ye...es,sir.”

“Purple Heart, cool scar, and you'll probably be back at work tomorrow morning.” Subject to there being a morning. Not that Jack was a pessimist or anything, but the odor of fried electrics, hot metal, chemical flame retardant and blood was tinged with the familiar bouquet of impending doom. The Ori, Dark Side Ascendeds, were making the Goa'uld look like rank amateurs when it came to galactic domination. Actually, interglactic domination, because the Ori had already set themselves up with a bunch of happy, dedicated followers in another galaxy, and now had their sites set on the Milky Way in what appeared to be an ongoing squabble with the not-quite-so Dark Side but nevertheless irritating Ancients.

Nothing like an intergalactic, inter-dimensional war to screw up his retirement plans. And just when he'd discovered that there really were fish in his pond.

Lam whipped out a set of forceps, an instrument that Jack had become personally acquainted with on several occasions, and nodded for him to release his hand. The kid tried to suppress a cry when the doc took a moment to dig around the wound before getting a firm grip on the artery. Jack gave the airman's shoulder a brief, reassuring squeeze then hoisted himself to his feet and peered down into the 'gate room. “How long before the 'gate is—son of a...”

“Could be some time, sir.” The edge to Walter's voice had taken on a vaguely resigned tone. “For a moment there, just as it shut down, the Stargate seemed to, well, disappear. When it reappeared...”

Walter didn't have to elaborate. The Stargate had rotated about twenty degrees left and was pitched forward at an alarming angle. The only thing that appeared to be stopping it from completely falling over was the crumpled mass of metal that had once been the ramp.

It looked as if something had reached through the worm-hole, grabbed the mesh, metal sheeting and the .50 cal machine guns that normally flanked the 'gate and balled them together like used aluminum foil.

Of more concern was the half closed iris. On the plus side, from what Jack could make out, the Marines stationed inside the 'gate room were unharmed, and armed reinforcements were already arriving. “Injuries?”

“Minor cuts and bruises, but nothing bad, sir.” Walter reached behind himself, brought his chair upright and sat down, glancing across at the young airman being loaded onto a stretcher. “At least in the 'gate room.”

Jack studied the situation for a moment longer. Sergeant Siler and the newest member of the SGC, Vala Mal Doran, were down in the 'gate room futzing around with the manual iris mechanism. Okay, all in all things weren't so bad. For one thing, they still had a 'gate. “All right—”

The Stargate groaned, tipped another few inches, and then began to dial. “That's not me!” Walter declared, his fingers tapping furiously at the still dead keyboard.

“Get that iris shut—wow!” Jack shouted above the renewed blare of klaxons.

“Sir, the iris mechanism is damaged!” Siler turned and looked up at Jack. “There's no way we can get it closed.”

Which left Jack with only one, gut wrenching option. “Code Red. Lock down the base,” he ordered Walter. “And get those backup systems online.”

Behind them, orderlies were lifting the injured airman onto a stretcher. Jack caught Lam's white-coated arm as she turned to leave. “Not you, Doctor. I need you to insert your command codes.”

Her eyes blanked for a moment before widening in comprehension. She twisted out of his grip; turned and stared through the shattered Plexiglas. “Are you serious?”

Jack didn't have the time to point out that the SGC could not risk the arrival of another Ori bioweapon, not after the thousands who had died last year. Standing orders left him no choice.

In the room below, Vala and Siler dived clear as a narrow vortex of boiling white erupted from the three-foot wide aperture that remained, disintegrating a chunk of mangled ramp before snapping back into place. It was small comfort to realize any Prior who took it into his baldy, self-righteous head to wander through the 'gate right about now would end up losing the lower half of his body to the wrong side of the iris. And as appealing as that notion was, while the titanium leaves of the iris remained even partially open, Earth was vulnerable to attack.

“Systems online, sir,” Walter announced, grim-faced.

Siler was staring up at Jack, shaking his head, while Vala continued to pound away at the manual iris mechanism. Jack admired her tenacity, but it was too late. Beside him, Lam stood frozen and wide-eyed. He understood her hesitation but he hadn't asked her to become the Chief Medical Officer of Stargate Command because she was General Landry's daughter.

Or maybe he had. 'Wow, Doctor,” he said, with just enough emphasis to be heard over a new round of bleating klaxons. Walter moved his chair back to give Lam access to the one functioning keyboard in the control room.

Her lips compressed into a tiny moue, Lam's nostrils flared as she sucked in deep breaths, controlling an emotion to which Jack had never been able to give a name. Worse for Caroline Lam. Her profession dictated she do no harm. Detonating a nuke that would, in the first instance, take out the fifteen hundred men and woman who worked in Cheyenne Mountain, and then God knew how many in the fallout, kind of fell outside that mandate. She nodded stiffly, bent and typed in her password and then backed away from the console like it was some sort of virulent pathogen.

Fingers steady, Jack typed in his code, wondering if this really was the last time he was going to have to do this. Several drops of the airman's semi-coagulated blood fell from his head onto the keys. Landry was going to be pissed when he woke from surgery and found out that Jack had vaporized his command—and his daughter.

“Sir, it's SG-l's IDC!” The relief in Walter's voice was tinged with incredulity.

“Are you certain?” Jack paused mid-stroke, stared at the monitor and felt his guts unclench at the red 'verified' that flashed onscreen.

Walter took over the keyboard, double-checking the input. “Yes, sir!”

Excellent! That feeling of averting doom once again just never grew old. “Open the iris.”

The sergeant's quick grin vanished when he repeatedly slapped his hand on the palm scanner and nothing happened. The aperture of the iris remained fixed at two thirds closed, and an entirely different kind of tension gripped Jack. Leaning forward, he yelled down through the shattered window to Siler, “Get that iris open!”

Vala threw up her hands, glaring up at him impatiently. “Would you make up your mind?”

Ignoring her exasperation, Jack directed his next order to Walter. “Warn SG-1 not to commence 'gate travel—”

A greasy metallic sound cut through the noise. “Not us, sir!” Siler shouted in response to the iris folding back into the framework supporting the 'gate.

“Definitely not us,” Vala called, stepping away from the mechanism with her hands upraised—this time, defensively. “Honestly!”

“Me neither, sir,” announced Walter. “And sir, I double checked the point of origin. The signal is not coming from any known 'gate address.”

Crap. The self-destruct option had just reappeared on the daily planner. He recommenced typing in his code when a familiar voice called from below, “It's okay, Jack. We're not Ori.”

Two apparently unarmed people had stepped through the 'gate and stood balanced on a piece of twisted framework. One of them was a short pudgy guy in a neatly pressed double-breasted pinstriped suit, tie and silk waistcoat. The other was wearing an Air Force uniform with three stars on the shoulder and a chest full of medals.

Jack was starting to wonder if he'd hit his head harder than he first thought when General Carter turned her gaze to him and smiled.

CHAPTER THREE

“Close the...” Cam just managed to stop himself from colliding with Teal'c, who was standing at the top of the ramp, staring up at the empty control room. “Whoa!”

Daniel pulled up short beside him. “Uh oh.”

Before Cam could request more intel on the exact nature of uh oh, the 'gate room kind of fizzled out like a mirage, the light fading and the walls compressing around them.

“What the hell!” He switched on the light attached to his P-90 and looked around. “At the risk of taking a page out of General O'Neill's book, I get the feeling we're not in Kansas, anymore. Not Bayou or the SGC, either, I'm guessing.”

“Uhm... Sam? I thought you'd fixed that.” The hesitation in Daniel's voice was less than reassuring.

Cam raked the darkness with his P-90. They were in a cavern. A very, very small cavern from what he could see, although it was hard to tell, what with a bulky Jaffa crammed against him on one side and Jackson on the other. He could just make out Sam's frowning face, pressed up against Jackson's pack.

“Fixed what?” Cam asked, trying not to breathe too deeply. The bouquet of Bayou they'd brought with them was thick inside the confines of whatever in hell they were in.

His butt was stinging, too, from all those little pricks he'd taken on his way to the 'gate, and his ripped face hurt like hell, not to mention he was dripping blood onto his P-90.

Squinting, Daniel pulled off his gunk-splattered glasses and looked around. “The solar flare thing.”

“What solar flare thing?”

Teal'c, whose head was angled awkwardly to fit into the confined space, was, for a rare change, more forthcoming. “I believe Daniel Jackson is referring to the time we were inadvertently sent to 1969.”

“That Code 30185 joke's dead in the water, guys.” Cam sneezed. The air was so dammed thick his eyes were starting to water. “You can give it up, now.”

“He's not joking, Cam,” Sam said, her voice no more reassuring than Daniel's had been. “Not this time.”

“Well I read that file and I'm telling ya, that—” Cam prodded the ceiling of the cave with his P-90— “is not the butt end of a Titan missile.”

“I don't think this was caused by a solar flare sending us back in time.” Sam twisted around and ran her hand, sliced and bloodied from the Bayou projectiles, down the rock wall. “And I don't think it's a black hole generated quantum shifting, either. Either we were diverted elsewhere and what we saw was an illusion, or we have gone back in time, in which case it must be prior to 1961.”

The year that excavation work began on Cheyenne Mountain. Great. “Any way to tell how far back we might have been thrown?”

Sam shook her head. “No.”

“How about the why? So we can start doing something to get out of this... this place?”

“Maybe it was those staff weapons the Priors were shooting at us as we went through the 'gate,” Daniel suggested. Blood was streaming down the side of his face, too, from where one of the dartballs had nicked his temple.

Cam resisted the temptation to groan out loud. He hated it when his bad feelings turned out to be right, which, come to think of it, was most of the time.

“No way of knowing for sure without analyzing the energy pattern.” Sam's hand fell away, and she played the beam of light around the rest of the cavern until it settled on a glass smooth circular section of rock at one end. Her breath caught, and Cam didn't think it was entirely due to the increasingly rancid smell when she added, “But theoretically that might be enough.”

“So, we got slimed and the beams got crossed. On the plus side, there's no sign of Gozer.” Cam wasn't going to pretend he cared how a couple of beams of energy entering a worm-hole on one planet, could send them back in time on Earth to where the 'gate would be sometime in the future, but wasn't here anymore. “How do we get out?”

Sam's expression warned him he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear. “We can't.”

Nope. Definitely did not want to hear that.

“Oh c'mon.” He smiled, just to let her know he was in on the joke. “We got in here, right? There has to be a way out.” Using his light, he hunted around for a crack in the roof of the cave while beside him Teal'c examined the ground.

“I don't think so.” Sam waved her P-90 around, indicating the oddly familiar shape of the cave. “Notice the way the rock has been carved out? This was formed by the vortex when the 'gate opened.”

“So where's the 'gate now?” Cam tapped the smooth end of the rock.

“Still in 2006. Before I joined the SGG, the Pentagon had me researching the Stargate as a possible time travel device because of the naquadah's unique temporal properties. Under the right circumstances the 'gate can create a temporal field around itself.”

“Which is what happened when we went back to 1969,” Daniel added.

“Right. Because the 'gate and point of origin was fixed in our time we saw a brief echo, like a window, into the SGC. When the wormhole disengaged, so did the temporal field, leaving the 'gate fixed in its own time.”

Cam distinctly remembered his eyes glazing over that section of the report. “So you're saying the same thing's happened here?”

“Not exactly, otherwise we would have arrived in Bayou at a different time.”

“Perhaps that is what the Ori intended,” Teal'c said.

“I think maybe you're right, Teal'c but...” Sam hesitated. “It's almost as if the wormhole and our energy signal were diverted when we were in transit. Even if the SGC do figure out what happened by analyzing the data stream, and how to dial in to this exact co-ordinate in space-time, any incoming wormhole would disintegrate us before it stabilized.”

Oh, was that all? “Okay, well, there has to be some other way out of here. How far is it to the surface?” Cam tapped the rock overhead with the muzzle of his P-90.

“Um... if we're in what will one day be the 'gate room? About twenty eight stories.” Daniel lowered himself to the newly carved ground, pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “Straight up. At, say, ten feet per story, not counting the supporting structure between the floors, that's, what? Three hundred feet give or take? A hundred yards?”

“A hundred yards? That's not much.”

“Through solid granite.” Sam eased off her pack and winced when she slumped down beside him. If she'd taken as many of those darts that Cam had collected in his ass, he knew exactly how she felt.

“Maybe the radio?” He patted the switch on his pocket, but all he got back was feedback from his teammates' com units, followed by unremitting static.

It was hot in here, as well as smelly and cramped. Sam smeared the blood on her face as she wiped away the sweat beading on her brow. “There's no way of knowing if we went back fifty years or fifty thousand.”

Cam frowned. Now he was really starting to worry. Sam sounded as defeated as he'd ever heard her, and seeing them all crouched in this tiny space, bleeding from countless small punctures, wasn't exactly inspirational, either. “Well, this has got to be the stupidest way to die I've ever heard of. Stuck in the middle of Cheyenne Mountain, probably before we were even born, in...how long did you say we had?”

“In an area this size?” Sam coughed and then cleared her throat. “Minutes, at the most.”

“On the bright side,” Daniel said, his eyes watering, “at least we won't have to put up with this stench for much longer.”

Cam looked around again, as if a miracle might have presented itself in the minute or so since he last looked, certain of only one thing—stench or no stench, he did not want to give the Ori the satisfaction of him dying like this.

CHAPTER FOUR

The stranger who'd stepped through the 'gate was looking around uncertainly, gripping a section of mangled Stargate ramp, while General Carter carefully balanced on part of the gun turret. The event horizon fizzled into nonexistence as the Stargate shut down behind them, but the klaxons continued to bleat. Ignoring the objections from his knees, Jack took the steps from the control room down to the corridor two at a time, calling over his shoulder, “Walter, shut that thing damn off, will ya?”

It crossed Jack's mind that given what had happened around here a year or so back, this could be the start of another multidimensional thing. But the moment he strode through the buckled doorway into the 'gate room, he realized this Carter wasn't so much from a where, as a when.

The guy with her was waggling his fingers in Siler's direction, but that wasn't the focus of his attention. “Vala, my dear!” His eyebrows lifted in delight. “How wonderful to see you after all these years. Do you think you could help an old man down from here? It doesn't appear to be terribly stable.” His high-pitched, squeaky little voice lent him a slightly ridiculous air, plummy Oxford accent notwithstanding.

Catching Jack's eye, Vala gave a not-so-surreptitious shake of her head. “I don't know him. I swear!”

“Oh, my dear. I suppose I have aged somewhat. It's me, Herbert.” Cringing behind General Carter as another contingent of Marines pounded into the 'gate room, he added with a squawk, “Do be kind and have those men point their guns elsewhere. You know how I feel about weapons.”

Along with the style of dress, his walrus moustache gave him the appearance of an escapee from a Sherlock Holmes story. Watson, maybe.

“You've obviously mistaken me for someone else.” Vala's face screwed up in dismay. “Although how anyone else could possibly be mistaken for me—”

“Okay,” Jack interrupted. “Now, as much we love entertaining visitors, we were kind of expecting someone else... General Carter?”

The smile on Carter's face was a little too smug. “Have been for a while now, Jack.”

He hadn't missed her calling him Jack the first time, either. “Wouldn't care to enlighten us on the whereabouts of SG-1, would you?”

“That's why we're here.”

Oh yeah, it was Carter all right. Kinda chirpy, though, which wasn't necessarily a good thing. And she didn't seem in the least perturbed to see the 'gate and ramp twisted around like a pretzel. Jack's gaze dropped to the gold thing on the back of Herbert's hand. Something about it rang a bell. “Is it going to involve a lot of math?”

Carter seemed amused by his question. And far too knowing. “No, Jack, but it'll require a little more than five words. Now, do you think you can get someone to help us down from here before this tips over entirely?”

There was a distinct 'three-star talking to a two-star' edge to her voice, something that he'd developed an ear for during his months in DC. “Is it going to?”

This time, the smile touched eyes that had seen maybe twice the years as the Carter of this era. “Not if Sergeant Siler hooks up the crane fast enough.”

Jack crossed his arms and held her gaze. “The Carter I know wouldn't have come back in time. Hell, she wouldn't even let me see the Cubs win the World Series.”

“I've learned a lot since then.” All trace of amusement in her voice fell away. A shadow briefly crossed her face. “We all have.”

Jack nodded at the contingent of Marines who'd crowded into the 'gate room behind him, signaling them to stand down, and pointed to a couple of SFAs to go around behind the 'gate to help Carter and Herbert negotiate the wreckage.

Once safely on the floor, Carter glanced up to the activity in the control room. “I'd offer to help get the systems back online, but it's not as bad as it seems.” She removed her hat to reveal hair more white than gray, and looked around curiously. “It's good to be here.”

“Been a while, huh?” As a conversational opener it probably wasn't his best line, but he was hoping it might leverage some information.

“Some time, yes.” A reflexive smile exaggerated the not-so fine lines around her eyes and mouth. “I'm retired now.”

Jack put her age at around sixty-five to seventy, and while a part of him felt a measure of satisfaction, pride even, that she'd made it so far in her career, he found it difficult to adjust to the idea of Carter retiring.

Apparently anticipating his reaction, she added, “Only from the Air Force, not from...other things. Jack, why don't you take a few minutes to get cleaned up while Dr. Lam takes the DNA samples you'll want in order to verify I am who I say I am?”

The blood all over his face and uniform probably was a little distracting. “I was about to make that very suggestion.”

*    *    *

One of the advantages of being a general was having your own bathroom. Jack stood under the shower for several minutes, letting the hot spray pummel his face and neck, trying, and failing, not to think too much about the change in dynamics between him and Carter. Three stars or not, when had 'sir' morphed into 'Jack'?

It wasn't just the designator; it was subtle shift in other ways, an implied intimacy that the passage of time alone couldn't account for. And while her being here assured him that the Ori would be, if not defeated then at least brought under control, he wasn't so certain that he wanted to know exactly what the future held, especially if it meant spending the next few years in DC. He'd always hated the place, and while he'd volunteered to go to bat for the SGC, playing nice with the OIC was like playing nice with a nest of vipers.

Okay, maybe a few tips on how to take out those sanctimonious god-wannabes would be nice—the Ori, not the OIC—and perhaps a few hints on next year's world series winner, but DNA testing offered no assurance that the General Carter who'd just stepped through the 'gate was this world's future Carter. The ZPM unearthed in Egypt eighteen months earlier had been discovered with some old burial jar stuffed with a video camera. According to Carter—present day, this world's Colonel Carter—and Dr. Lee, the footage proved SG-1 had gone back in time five thousand years and triggered the rebellion against Ra that culminated in the burial of the Stargate.

Since Jack distinctly remembered not doing that—and he was pretty damned certain that he wouldn't forget how much he'd enjoy pissing off that overdressed snakehead—it was entirely possible that the General Carter who'd just waltzed through the 'gate wasn't from this dimension, or timeline, or whatever in hell it was, either.

Which meant that Jack couldn't be certain that SG-1 were still alive.

The woodpecker made a beeline back to his forehead and started hammering out a tattoo that was only compounded by the pelt of steamy hot water. He turned off the faucet, stepped out of the shower and, ignoring the interesting bruise developing across the lower right half of his rib cage, wrapped a towel around his waist and called, “Walter!”

Before the last syllable was out of his mouth, a set of BDUs, complete, he noted, with stars and designator, appeared through the half-opened door. “And sir,” Walter's voice followed, “Sergeant Siler reports that the damage to the 'gate isn't as bad as it looks. Clean up crew are working to clear the area, and the iris has been closed. The new framework and ramp will be installed inside twenty-four hours.”

Taking the clothes, Jack unwrapped the towel and hung it on a hook. “And the—”

“Computers systems are fully operational, sir,” Walter replied. “Technicians are currently replacing damaged hardware. They estimate that all systems will be in and fully tested by the time the 'gate is reinstalled.”

He tugged a t-shirt over his head. “What about—”

“General Landry is out of surgery and should be back on his feet by the end of the week.”

“Kidney stones, huh. Nasty.” Bending to pull on a pair of shorts, Jack discovered that maybe there was something a little more wrong with his ribs than a bruise, but it could wait. He straightened carefully, hoping Walter hadn't heard his pain-filled grunt.

“Yes, sir. Senator Fisher said that under the circumstances he's willing to postpone the hearing into the loss of the Prometheus.”

“How nice of the Senator.” While Jack wasn't entirely thrilled at the notion of a thief and con artist gallivanting around three galaxies with SG-1, after the Prometheus had been destroyed the senator's encounter with Vala had become the punch line in a whole slew of classified jokes making the rounds of the Pentagon and DOD. The subsequent near loss of the Odyssey following the incursion of the Ori ships into this galaxy had Landry practically champing at the bit to get to DC for a session of 'we told you so'.

Jack also suspected that despite the intense pain the man had been suffering before his surgery, Landry had enjoyed calling from Walter Reed to ask Jack to fill in at the SGC for a few days.

'C'mon, Jack, I could see it in your face the last time you were there. Landry had coaxed. ‘I know you 're just itching to get hack in the saddle. Think of it as getting up to speed with what s happening out in the universe, without having to read a year's worth of reports.'

With a grimace, Jack finished tying his shoelaces and stood, deciding he should pay Carolyn Lam a visit sooner rather than later. And then he took a deep breath and squared his shoulders, mentally prepared himself for a more than a five-word explanation from General Carter.

*    *    *

The briefing room, Jack noted, had suffered considerably less damage than the control room. The wide windows overlooking the 'gate room had come out of it with just a few cracks, and the bank of flat-paneled monitors to his left were already displaying the status of... Come to think of it he had no idea what they were displaying, but they looked pretty much the same as they had when Jack had arrived this morning. Walter was at a side table, messing around with coffee, and a couple of airmen had just finished repotting some large piece of foliage that decorated one corner in a futile attempt to disguise the fact they were buried deep underground in a concrete bunker.

Shoving his hands into the pockets of his BDUs, Jack went to the center window and looked down. It would have taken a week with cutting tools before the twisted wreckage of ramp and guns could be removed from the 'gate room. To avoid that, before showering, he'd authorized opening the tunnel to the surface so the entire mess could be hoisted out and a new ramp lowered. Meanwhile, under Siler's direction, the Stargate was being hooked up to a second crane.

“I'm terribly sorry about the damage.”

Jack turned. Carter's companion, the as-yet-to-be-explained Herbert, was shuffling into the room, an apologetic smile lifting the corners of his oversized moustache.

“Not your fault, Herbert.” Carter—General Carter—circled around the departing airmen, who tried and failed to be surreptitious in their stares, and then made a beeline for the head of the conference table. She pulled up just short, and instead opted for the chair that the Carter of this time had most often used. Making no attempt to hide her slip, the General met his raised eyebrow with a vaguely apologetic smile. “I'm not going to stand on protocol, Jack. I'm the guest, here.”

With a nod, Jack signaled their armed Marine escort to wait outside. “You mean there's a protocol for time travelers who outrank their superior officers?”

He'd already noticed that while Carter wore no rings, there was an indentation across the third finger of her left hand, where one had sat until recently. Very recently. Wedding bands were the first thing removed prior to Special Ops missions. “How's Pete?” Pulling his hands from his pockets, he wandered over to the head of the table.

“Nice try, Jack,” she replied, sliding into her seat.

Fast, but not fast enough. Her hesitation told him that she hadn't had the time to prepare for questions that could trip her up, which pegged this as a last minute operation from... when?

For some reason he was reminded of the day that she'd strode into this same room almost ten years earlier; cocky and ambitious and determined to prove that being a scientist didn't make her a liability. The edges had been rounded and the cockiness had been wiped away her very first trip through the 'gate. As for the assuredness, it was now tacked in place by the three stars, an additional thirty years of living and...something else that he couldn't quite put a finger on. He was definitely not imagining the unnerving feeling that she could see straight through him; into places he'd worked hard to keep hidden, even from himself.

“My dear chap,” Herbert asked Walter. “Would a cup of tea be out of the question?”

The sergeant turned. In his hand was a cup and saucer that looked like escapees from Great Aunt Gertrude's tea set. A sliver of lemon bobbed around the surface of the clear, dark fluid.

While Walter's mind reading capabilities were well known, Jack suspected that in this instance General Carter had given the sergeant a heads up.

Walter placed the tea on the table then followed through with two coffees and a platter of Danish, before quietly leaving via Landry's—Jack had never thought of it as his, even when it had been—office.

“Well.” He rubbed his hands together the moment the door behind him had closed. “This is cozy. You were saying about the mess, Herbert...?”

“Oh. Yes, of course, I'm sorry,” Carter said without the slightest hint of apology. “Major General Jack O'Neill, this is Herbert George.”

Herbert offered him an outstretched hand. Parchment skin and fine-boned fingers didn't detract from the old man's firm grip. “We've met before, of course,” he supplied.

“Ah...not yet,” Carter corrected, sending Jack a slightly uneasy look which, he was certain, was designed to have him second guessing his uncertainty about her motivations. “It's a time travel thing. It can get a little confusing.”

Jack sat down at the head of the table, where Walter had left his coffee waiting for him. He inhaled the caffeine fumes, hoping they'd exorcise the damned woodpeckers. “No. Really?”

If Herbert was in any way put out by Jack's brand of sarcasm, he didn't show it, while Carter said simply, “You know, you haven't changed a bit.”

“This is why I gave up all this adventuring this some years back.” Herbert patted his pocket absently. “Lost track of when I'd met people. But duty called in this instance, and what's a fellow to do?” He withdrew a chestnut colored pipe with a heavily chewed stem and placed it on the table by his tea. A few powdery tobacco cinders spilled onto the table.

“Now, Herbert, we discussed this before we left,” Carter admonished. There was something else in her voice Jack now recognized, a tone half remembered from a past life that tagged him like a shadow. Sarah had spoken like that. Maternal.

“Oh, don't fuss, my dear Samantha.” Herbert unfastened the hand device and placed it on the table beside his pipe. “You're as bad as that son of yours. I don't intend to ignite it.”

Carter's nostrils flared in annoyance. “Herbert!”

Allowing that piece of information to wash over him, Jack leaned back in his chair in the hope of finding a position that didn't make his chest feel like it'd been kicked by a mule. “Fascinating as these little glimpses of the future are, can we get back to the part where you were apologizing for the mess?”

“The Priors attacked SG-1 on Bayou with a form of energy weapon,” Carter said, turning her attention from Herbert. “Their attack missed SG-1 but the beams from their staffs combined, entering the 'gate just ahead of them. The energy burst destabilized the wormhole and—”

A knock on the outer door was followed by the appearance of a guard. Jack caught a glimpse of large dark eyes and a Cheshire cat grin peeking over the Marine's shoulder.

“What have I missed so far?” Vala called. “Anything interesting?”

“It's all right, Jack.” Carter waved her in. “As a member of SG-1, Vala should hear this.”

“What was that you were saying about protocol?” Jack frowned, dismissing the Marine with a nod. Vala had not been an accepted member of SG-1 for very long, which told Jack that contrary to his first impression, General Carter had indeed done her homework. Any hesitation or slip of the tongue on her behalf was deliberate.

“Thanks, guys.” Dialing back the wattage on her smile, Vala tossed a pair of thick ponytails oyer her shoulders, strode in like she owned the place and scooped up a Danish before pulling back the chair opposite Carter. Then she perched—literally—on the edge of the seat, brought her BDU-covered knees to her chest and wrapped one arm around her legs. “This is all very exciting.” Gaze fixed on Herbert's gold hand device, she leaned forward. “Ooooh. What's that?”

Fumbling in his rush to snatch the thing out of her reach, Herbert glared at her.

“What?” Vala's tone was so poignantly innocent that Jack had to remind himself that she wasn't a perky teenager with an attention span just short of his, but the resident expert in mendacity.

Herbert's hangdog expression would have put a bloodhound to shame. “You stole it from me.”

“Did not!” she shot back indignantly.

“Yes, but you will. Oh, my dear Vala, the trouble you caused me.” Herbert's features abruptly softened and he offered her a sleazy little smile. “But, of course, I forgave you. After all, you were the only woman who truly managed to satisfy my—”

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” Looking like she'd swallowed a lemon, Vala dumped the Danish on the table, dropped her legs, pushed her chair back and crossed her arms. “I do have some standards, I'll have you know. And I certainly didn't come here to be insulted.”

Jack's patience was even shorter than his attention span. Turning to Carter, he loaded his voice with the minimum of restraint necessary when addressing a three star. “General?”

“Herbert.” Carter grasped the older man's arm in warning. “We agreed you'd leave the recriminations at home, and the explanations to me.”

Preempting any further distractions, Jack simultaneously fixed Vala with a stern look. “Not another word.”

She shrugged and, one eye on the abandoned pastry, began rocking on the back legs of the chair. Herbert sighed and contented himself with his tea, while Carter continued her interrupted explanation. “The destabilized wormhole would have collapsed, killing SG-1, but Herbert managed to divert it.”

Processing that information, Jack said, “Thank you. To where?”

“More accurately, when.” The rocking stopped.

“Ah!” Jack informed Vala with a cautionary finger. “Not a word.”

“This—” Carter tapped Herbert's gold doohickey— “well, the simplest description is that it's a remote control DHD. It's what Cassandra will use to send SG-1 back to the correct time when she meets them after they jump too far forward in time from 1969.”

While Jack now recognized the device, there was absolutely no way he was going to try and fathom the tenses in that statement. “I thought Cassie just opened the 'gate with it?”

“It's more involved than that. As you know, after you came back from the first Abydos mission, the Pentagon had me researching the Stargate for other applications including time travel. The problem with that line of research—and one of the reasons I abandoned it—is that the Ancients never meant for the Stargates to be used for time travel. Consequently the DHDs were only programmed to compensate for stellar drift in three dimensions, not four—the fourth being time.”

“Well, that's hardly a revelation.” The Danish had reappeared in Vala's hand. Mostly. Some of it was bunched up inside her left cheek. “Matter is moving through space at several thousand miles a second, so unless you get all the coordinates right, you could find yourself in the right time at the wrong place.”

Jack pinned her with a glare. “What did I just say?”

“It was a perfectly legitimate observation.” She swallowed and stared right back at him. “Just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean you have to be such a grouch about it.”

“Hasn't General Landry ever given you a run down on the meaning of the word, 'sir'?”

A thoughtful frown put in a brief appearance before the chair rocking started up again. “He might have mentioned something about it, but only in passing.” She took another huge bite out of the pastry and chewed noisily, and then grinned at him. “I'm pretty choosy about who I let discipline me, you know.”

“Forgetting to take stellar drift into account during time travel is a most unpleasant experience, I can assure, you.” Herbert's words were at odds with his censorious tone. The look he gave Vala before he fixed his attention on Jack, spoke of more than a passing acquaintance. “As Vala pointed out, it can mean arriving millions of miles out in the void of space. Very nasty.”

“Getting the right time-space co-ordinates still doesn't guarantee a safe arrival,” Carter added, “because there are elements you can't always factor into your equations, like a tree or a building being in the way. Even if you eliminate that possibility by arriving well above the ground, there's still the danger of something transient like a flock of birds. And the result is...explosive.”

Despite himself, Jack actually followed what she was saying. “So how come nothing blew up when we arrived in 1969?”

“One reason we considered Stargates as time travel devices was because the unstable vortex disintegrates all matter ahead of an incoming traveler. While the time-shifted vortex creates the hole, the 'gate remains anchored to its own time. The downside, of course is it's a one-way trip. But with no matter in the way, there's no explosion. We arrived at 1969 into a void that existed directly beneath the engines of a Titan missile. In fact that void was not carved out when the Cheyenne Mountain complex was constructed, but by the 'gate vortex to when Herbert sent SG-1.”

Eyeing the gold hand device, Vala said, “That would explain why you can't use that and the Stargate to retrieve SG-1. They're inside the cavern created by that vortex.”

“Exactly.” Carter nodded and wrapped her fingers around her cup. “A second vortex would disintegrate them. Which means that before you can recover SG-1 —”

“As in, we?” Eyebrows lifting hopefully, Vala glanced at Jack.

“Couldn't have done it without you.” Carter smiled and sipped her coffee.

Vala leaned forward and slapped Jack's arm with excitement. “Oh goodie!”

Examining the flakes of sticky pastry and icing sugar now glued to his shirt, Jack wondered if there was something to all that bad karmic stuff that Daniel had been jabbering on about. “Can we skip to the how—” he glanced at Vala, who snatched up a second Danish— “we, recover SG-1?”

“I assume you've read Dr. Weir's reports from the Atlantis expedition?” Carter didn't wait for his affirmation before adding, “In which case you'll be aware that prior to their evacuation to Earth ten thousand years ago, an Ancient named Janus built a temporal device and, presumably to avoid the risk of encountering solid matter during time travel by operating in orbit, installed it in one of the Atlantis jumpers. The head of the Council, Moros, had the machine dismantled, but Janus brought his research to Earth and either he or another Ancient built a second device and jumper.

“While some of these refugee Ancients remained on Earth, others left for planets elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy and the temporal enhanced jumper ended up on the planet that Harry Maybourne—”

“Now, you see. You always do that.” Jack shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I was having such a nice day until you reminded me of Maybourne. What happens to Harry in the future, anyway? No, don't tell me. King Arkhan probably lives a full and happy life, has forty doting wives, a dozen fat children and gets himself buried in a flashy tomb erected in the Grateful Dead burial ground.”

Even though he knew she wasn't going to answer his question, the expression that crossed Carter's face wasn't the least bit reassuring, either! “That temporally enhanced jumper is currently at Area 51.”

“Can I say something?” Vala asked, around another mouthful of food.

“No.”

“Let her speak, Jack,” Carter said, effectively pulling rank on him.

Vala treated Carter to a beaming smile and then glanced around the table at the others. “Sounds to me that even using a jumper, this whole time travel thing doesn't seem terribly safe.”

“Oh, really?” Jack said. “What a shame you won't be joining us.”

She pulled a face at him and directed her next question to Carter. “I mean...what happens if”you bump into a passing meteorite, or junk cluttering up the space around planets that've had the odd battle or two?”

“That's a very good question, my dear,” Herbert replied, with an indulgent smile. “Apparently the jumper's shields protect the occupants from the resultant explosion. Given any detritus would be vaporized, it's unlikely anybody on the ground would in any way be affected by the impact.”

“Sooo...just out of curiosity,” Vala speculated, poking through the remaining Danish. “What if we decided not to rescue SG-1?” When a stony silence met her suggestion, she looked up and added hastily, “Not that we wouldn't or anything, you know, but, if.”

Carter didn't seem surprised by her query. “For one thing I wouldn't be here now, and for another, when Cheyenne Mountain was excavated they would have discovered our bodies. And since I'm here, and they didn't—”

“Isn't that what Daniel described as post hoc reasoning?” Abandoning the gelatinous mass on the plate, Vala reached for the water carafe.

A familiar smile crossed Carter's face. She picked up Herbert's hand device and turned it in her fingers. “Welcome to the wonderful world of time travel.”

“There's one teensy-weensy thing I don't understand.”

Jack couldn't help himself. “Only one?”

Loftily ignoring his sarcasm, Vala kept her attention on Carter. “Why couldn't your...our...little friend Herbert, here, redirect the wormhole back to the here and now?”

“Because the wormhole was already destabilized, the matter stream was unstable and we could have lost SG-1 entirely,” Carter explained. “It was safer to direct it to where a tear in space-time already existed, which acted like an area of least resistance to allow the matter stream to reform unharmed.”

“Which begs the obvious question, doesn't it?” Vala said.

For a fleeting moment, Jack envied Vala for only being vague on one point. Truth was, he'd been out of his depth since the meeting began and his patience was now at the threadbare stage. He glared at Vala, shaking his pounding head. “No.”

She fixed her gaze on Herbert. “What caused the tear in the first instance?”

It was Carter, rather than Herbert, who answered Vala. The General dropped the device on to the table and picked up her coffee mug. “That's where you come in.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Any twinge of avarice Vala had initially experienced upon first seeing the jumpers in Atlantis had quickly dissipated with the knowledge that access to the vessels' flight systems was restricted to those who bore the Ancient gene. And since the vast majority of those people were still on Atlantis, that left General O'Neill in charge of this mission; a fact that, despite his pretended grumpiness, didn't appear to upset him in the slightest.

If anything he seemed quite enthusiastic to be leaving what—in Vala's opinion—was the most stultifying place on the planet. Not that she'd been given much of an opportunity to explore other places on Earth besides the equally stultifying city they called Washington DC, a monster-ridden forest around General Landry's cabin, Sol's diner, and a nearby warehouse. Still, she sensed in O'Neill the same need in her to leave the ugly gray walls of the SGC behind—the irresistible urge to go outside and play.

Unfortunately, 'outside' had lasted all of two minutes in a noisy, dangerous contraption with large rotating airfoils called a helicopter, a trip that Vala was certain could equally have been accomplished in a car. Then they'd climbed into a somewhat more comfortable winged vehicle called a C-21, where there'd been lots of boring chitchat that these people justified by calling it briefing—and there was a misnomer if ever she'd heard one—about O'Neill sticking to flight paths to avoid the alarming amount of litter orbiting Earth; a fact that Vala found intriguing since they apparently hadn't had that many space battles.

Watching General Carter install the Asgard transport device into the jumper had been an exercise in sheer frustration. If anyone had asked her—but of course no one had—Vala was absolutely certain she could have gotten things up and running hours ago. She'd encountered the odd piece of Asgard technology in her dealings with her prior business associates and on principle made a point of learning what she could about any new equipment that came her way. One never knew when these things would come in handy, after all. Still, observing Carter and Lee at work had given her some insight into the more recent Ancient developments, so the day hadn't been entirely wasted.

“Y'know,” Dr. Lee said, glancing around to make certain Carter was still outside talking to O'Neill, “I still don't see why we have to stick with 'puddle jumper' just because that's what the Atlantis expedition calls them. Since when have we referred to the event horizon as a puddle? Gateship just seems more appropriate.” He returned to examining the readout on the datapad in his hand.

“What about timeship?” Vala ran her fingers along the flat, glassy crystals of the DHD mounted behind the jumper's control panel. As design ideas went, it offered a decidedly improved tactical advantage over the big, lumbering and not very portable standard model DHD. “After all, we will be flying around in a time machine.”

“How 'bout Tempus Fugit?”

She turned to face the balding scientist. “There's absolutely no cause to be rude.”

Smiling, Lee glanced up from the panel he was working on. “It's Latin for 'time flies'.” He waved the datapad around in one hand and the stylus in the other as he explained. “I just thought, you know, since it's a common expression and because Latin is related to Ancient...” Seeing the look on her face he took a deep breath, exhaled forcefully and returned to checking the array of crystals in the overhead compartment. “Forget I mentioned it.”

“Obscure cultural references notwithstanding, I still haven't entirely grasped this need to wave one's arms around when explaining something. Daniel does it a great deal and I find it quite distracting.” Even if, in Daniel's case, it was also somewhat endearing.

“We...ell,” Lee countered, repositioning something he referred to as an alligator clip on one of the Ancient crystals. “You do the same thing with your...urn...body.”

“Ah, yes, but that serves a very practical purpose.” Ignoring the flush of color that came to his cheeks, Vala gently tapped two of the furthermost crystals with her index finger. “Just as I think you'll find that moving these over here—” She indicated two slots at the rear— “will finish the job nicely.”

Gaze darting between the panel and his datapad, Lee repositioned the crystals, shook his head in wonder and then offered her a grateful smile. “Y'know, that really is a gift.”

Although she didn't know a huge amount about the more recent Ancient devices, the placement of the crystals was pretty obvious. “Comes with having had Qetesh inside my head all those years.”

That insipid little man who'd worked for Athena hadn't helped, either. In attempting to extract some utterly worthless knowledge about a non-existent treasure map, he'd bequeathed Vala with the entire set of Goa'uld memoirs, something she could happily have done without.

So much for her primitive human mind.

Lee's smile turned apologetic and he looked away, somewhat embarrassed. “If you ever get bored back at the SGC,” he suggested hesitantly, “I could always do with a hand in the lab.”

It wasn't often Vala was caught off guard, and while she knew Lee found her seductively attractive—most men did, naturally—she was a little surprised to realize that he honestly appreciated her less visible attributes, too.

She suspected it might be one of the reasons why the people on this planet had become important to her. And that was an odd notion in itself, because experience had taught her that demonstrating even the slightest bit of consideration to anyone other than herself invariably ended badly. Still, fitting into military life at the SGC was not proving to be the easiest of tasks, the odd night out in the restaurants of Colorado Springs notwithstanding. Despite her relatively recent status as a fully fledged member of the SGC—and Daniel's assurances that she really didn't have to prove herself anymore—helping Lee might further her status as well as alleviating her boredom.

Footsteps on the hatch announced the arrival of Carter. “How are we doing?”

Disconnecting his datapad, Lee closed the access panels. “Every system now has a discreet power source, but in the event of, say, a failure of the drive pods, General O'Neill should be able to instantly divert power from the time machine or Asgard transport to compensate.” He turned to Carter and added, “I'm glad the Asgard finally taught us—well, you—to install their equipment without their constant supervision.”

Not for the first time that day, Vala got the distinct impression that General Carter's cryptic smile was hiding something more than thirty odd years of additional history.

O'Neill stepped inside, paused for a quick look around, and, easing past the temporal device mounted in the jumper's tiny cargo bay, came forward to the cockpit and rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “Okay kids, are we ready to take the DeLorean for a test drive?”

Lee muttered something under his breath about the logical inconsistencies and scientific inaccuracies in what Vala assumed, was a movie of some kind. She wasn't entirely sure what he was on about, however, and it made her wonder if she should reconsider Teal'c's offer to loan her his extensive DVD library which, he had assured her, were considerably more educational than Sol's collection of X-Files tapes.

While the other members of SG-1 had agreed to a moratorium on cultural references, she hated feeling left out, or that someone was making a joke she wasn't in on. And that whole 'sharing leaves' ritual with the hysterical onion-faced wife of Ver Egen's Administrator had been a pointed reminder of why one should familiarize oneself with the local customs. Something she was certainly going to include in any book she wrote on Handy Hints For Getting Around The Universe.

Not that she was likely to. Apparently there was already a book on the subject, although how any Earthling imagined they knew enough about getting around the galaxy to write a guide for hitchhikers, was a bit of a mystery. Probably stole the entire idea from an alien.

O'Neill made himself at home in the pilot's chair while Carter stood watching over his shoulder. Curious to see exactly how this all worked, Vala positioned herself behind the starboard passenger seat, balanced her elbows on the backrest and cupped her chin in her hands.

“Now remember, Jack,” Carter said, “just like the last time.”

The padded seat swiveled around and O'Neill shot her a speculative look. “Last time? There's only been a first time.”

“Plus two trips to ancient Egypt, one via Chulak, which, as far as we've been able to ascertain, successfully restored the original timeline.”

“More or less,” Lee muttered behind them. Vala turned in time to see Lee rocking his hand back and forth.

O'Neill peered up at Carter, looking confused. “Two trips? The footage from the video camera says we only made one.”

Catching the ghost of a smile on Carter's face, Vala shrugged. “Makes perfect sense to me.”

Lee turned to her, an unmistakable glint of respect in his eyes. “Exactly! I've never understood why anyone finds this difficult to follow. After all, the only reason why we still have this jumper is because the second Egypt trip was successful.”

The scientist's momentary burst of enthusiasm was quashed by O'Neill's sour look.

Carter seemed to be trying not to smile. She cleared her throat, pointing to the controls. “Okay, Jack, the neural interface between you and the Ancient computer is subtle, but with a little practice, you'll be able to sense whether the ship is functioning within accepted parameters.”

When the General placed his hands on the control panel, a cyan glow and a low hum signaled more than the ship coming to life. O'Neill's features softened and a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Nice.”

This, Vala knew for certain, was where O'Neill belonged, not in some stuffy old office. The jumper lifted several feet—Vala had gotten the local measurement thing down quite nicely, she thought—off the floor of the hangar and rotated three hundred and sixty degrees, gently rocking to and fro and pivoting back and forth as it turned. The only sense of motion came from the visual cues through the windscreen, which meant the inertial dampeners were functioning quite nicely. She understood the General's wistful smile. While it wasn't the largest of ships, the jumper really was a nice ride. Pity it required a pesky little gene to operate, otherwise it would be worth a small fortune on the open market. If she could just figure out how to acquire the gene therapy she'd been hearing so much about...

Such a train of thought had become second nature to her. Like running. But she had found a home with these people and she wasn't about to spoil it by returning to her larcenous ways, no matter how tempting.

“Now the HUD.” Carter looked up at the windscreen, and nodded in satisfaction when a detailed heads-up display appeared.

“I've added map databases to the computer,” Lee explained. “And installed into the collision avoidance system the current data from the Space Control Center. Currently they're tracking over eight thousand objects including payloads, rocket bodies and debris, but of course there's more space than debris so it'll be easy enough to avoid.”

“Excellent!” O'Neill's smile broadened as multiple options appeared on the HUD.

Turning to look over Lee's shoulder to his laptop, Carter said, “Try the cloak.”

From her vantage, Vala couldn't see the leading edge of the jumper, but by the reactions of the assorted military types and men in white coats standing around outside, the ship's cloak also was fully operational.

The jumper settled back on the ground, and O'Neill looked around the cabin expectantly.

“What is it, General?” asked Dr. Lee.

“I'm thinking of cake.”

Given some of the technology that she'd encountered throughout the galaxy, Vala thought it worth a shot.

“Jack, how about you focus on the time machine?” Carter moved to the rear and peered at the datapad balanced on top of the device. “Just be very careful not to think about actually going anywhere yet.”

The word, “spoilsport” followed Carter but either she failed to notice or it was like water off a penguin's back. Then the glow from the pedestal and oval face of the time machine caught her attention.

“It's working,” Lee announced with considerable enthusiasm. Examining his own datapad, he added, “Power consumption is...well, it's almost insignificant.”

Carter nodded in satisfaction. “Relative to a Stargate generated wormhole, the wormhole created by the time machine is so brief that you probably won't even notice the transition.” She disconnected the datapad and closed the panel on the machine.

“Now remember,” Lee warned, shutting the remainder of the panels around the jumper, “in order to minimize your impact in that time, you shouldn't stay any longer than necessary.”

“I don't know what all the fuss is about interference.” Vala swiveled the chair around so that she could perch on the arm. “I've always understood from the various...how shall I say... dealers... in such technology, that time traveling is perfectly safe. If you do happen to change something, a new timeline goes wandering off in another direction while the timeline you came from continues merrily on its own way.”

“Which explains why the SG-1 from our timeline didn't actually go back to ancient Egypt and why we still have this jumper,” Lee added brightly.

Despite O'Neill's pained look, Carter said, “Multiverses are an understood aspect of quantum physics, however, splitting the timelines of a single universe can fragment it to the point that time begins looping.”

Lee's eyes lit up and he slid into the passenger chair behind the General. “That could be one explanation for what happened with that Ancient time machine on P4X-639 with... what was that guy's name? Malikai? Earth was locked in a time loop for three months.”

“Put me off my favorite cereal for year.” O'Neill tugged a pair of dark glasses from his pocket.

“Actually, about that,” Carter said. “The technology only works in time jumps longer than a couple of hundred years. Since SG-1 haven't gone back that far, you'll need to focus on, say, 1600AD before traveling forward again to the correct date.”

“It's Ancient,” O'Neill replied, frowning. “How's it gonna know AD from ATM?”

“The Ancient computer extrapolates from your concept of time, just as it takes what else it needs from your mind. Trust me on this, Jack, it's going to take you exactly when you need to be.”

Vala studied the General curiously for a moment. She'd been around the universe long enough to know a scam when she heard one, and, while this Carter may be an older version of the Sam Carter she had come to know and respect over the past few months, her scam detector was pinging overtime.

“I have two tiny little questions.” O'Neill's look of exasperation didn't deter Vala in the slightest. “If we don't notice a transition, how will we know if we've gone back to the right time? Oh, and you still haven't explained that whole rippy thing in the cosmic sponge.”

“That's quantum foam—”

“Knew it was bath related.”

Although Lee chuckled, Carter was clearly starting to lose patience. Flashing a repentant smile at General O'Neill, Vala added, “Sorry. Just trying to inject a little humor into the situation.”

O'Neill turned and studied Dr. Lee, who was looking very much at home in the passenger seat. “Where do you think you're going?”

“I just figured that since the entire mission is only going to last a few minutes...”

The General's stare turned frosty. Shoulders slumping in resignation, Lee reluctantly hoisted himself out of the chair.

“I'll bring you back a souvenir,” Vala offered after his departing back.

He responded with a disappointed smile and brief wave before tromping down the hatch.

“As you know, because of the Ori crisis,” Carter said, switching on the Asgard transport scanner, “several hundred key personnel on Earth have had locator beacons subcutaneously implanted in their arms. The moment you arrive in 1947, you should only detect SG-l's, and—” She paused, glanced at the rear of the jumper, presumably to make certain no one was within earshot, and, lowering her voice, redirected her next remark to O'Neill. “Thor says hello.”

“Thor!” O'Neill's face became positively animated. “How is the little guy?”

Carter hesitated, and then she shook her head. “Heimdall's research isn't going as well as they'd hoped.”

O'Neill winced. “The degraded cloning thing, huh?”

It was then that Vala suddenly understood that this mission really wasn't about saving SG-1 at all. Her finely turned scam-o-meter honed right in on Carter's unspoken worry. “That's what caused the tear in the space-time continuity.”

“Not so much a that, as a who.” Tapping the transport scanner, Carter turned to Vala and explained, “He's wearing a locator beacon. You can beam him aboard at the same time as SG-1.”

Incredulous, O'Neill yanked off his glasses. “Are you kidding me? You dumped SG-1 in the past so we'd have to go rescue some guy and bring him back here?”

“Not exactly a guy,” Carter explained, and then added with a whimsical smile, “His name is An and he is—well, at least he was—a sort of Asgard Einstein, although his area of expertise was genetics, not physics.”

Vala looked at Carter curiously. “He? Since when have the Asgard, you know, genderized?”

“They don't like being referred to as 'it', particularly because it draws attention to their...reproductive issues.” Carter pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket as she spoke. “Some time ago, the Asgard High Council sanctioned certain experiments using humans.”

“Knew it!” O'Neill snapped indignantly. “Didn't I mention that very—”

“Jack, it wasn't what you think. An wasn't kidnapping people and cloning them like Loki did to you. He was taking samples from those who had recently died. No one on Earth was aware of an Asgard presence until An vanished in a catastrophic accident and his assistant, Loki, started on his own line of research.”

The name Loki triggered a very odd expression on O'Neill's face. Teal'c's DVDs would have to wait, Vala decided. She had some reading to catch up on. Maybe Mitchell's obsessive memorizing of past SG-1 missions—and his spookily unnatural ability to recall them in detail—had a purpose, after all. Despite what Vala thought she knew about SG-1 and the Asgard, it seemed that there were some rather large holes in her knowledge base. And knowledge, as she had pointed out to Daniel on several occasions, was power.

And now that she was officially a part of the SGC, she wouldn't even have to steal the files.

“The Asgard High Council investigated the accident. Their ship's log confirmed Loki's version of events. Since an almost identical incident occurred forty years earlier involving a Goa'uld Ha'tak, and both events were associated with a localized weakening of the space-time continuum, Loki was held blameless.”

O'Neill seemed unimpressed but pre-empting any further disparaging comments on the subject, Carter added, “While Loki's research subsequent to his role as An's assistant was unethical, when it came to record keeping he was meticulous.”

“Meticulous? Hell, he couldn't even get the Xerox working properly.”

“What's a Xerox?”

Ignoring her perfectly reasonable question, Carter carried on as if Vala hadn't even spoken. “The Council punished him for that, Jack. But that's not the problem. Heimdall and Thor reviewed Loki's work, and they now believe that Loki did something much worse.”

“Ya think? It doesn't get much worse than having to go through puberty twice.”

O'Neill's experiences interested Vala far less than the idea that the overbearing and insufferably superior Asgard squabbled with one another. It opened a whole range of possibilities and perhaps a few hints as to why their technology was occasionally available on the open market.

“You remember that present you gave Thor?” Carter asked.

Vala couldn't decide if the look on O'Neill's face was uncertainty or guilt. Whatever it was, he followed it with a distinctly reluctant, “Yes?”

“It prompted Thor to cross-reference An's disappearance with historical events on Earth. He and Heimdall now believe Loki used what the Council ruled as an accident as an opportunity to supplant An.”

“And they took how many years to figure that out?”

“Between genetic degradation and rebuilding after the Replicator plague, they've been a little busy,” she said dryly. “Even under ideal circumstances the High Council can take decades to deliberate on important matters.”

While it was a very compelling story, Vala wasn't so easily convinced. “Yes, but since your being here means we obviously succeed in recovering SG-1, you know we also recover An. Why then didn't we...you...us...whatever...tell Thor and the High Council about Loki after we got back?” She ignored the baffled look that O'Neill leveled at her.

“It's a little complicated.” Carter's eyes dropped and she ran her fingers across the fold in the paper. “The High Council is reluctant to accept they might have erred in ruling Loki blameless for the loss of An. Additionally, they don't sanction time travel, which means it's imperative this mission remain a secret and that you do not inform the Asgard after you return to this time. Once we take An back to the future, it's a fait accompli. The High Council will hold SG-1 blameless because, of course, you didn't know about their laws on time travel.”

“So this Thor character wants us to do break their laws?” Vala said. “What's in it for us?”

Pointedly ignoring Vala's not so rhetorical query—again—Carter handed O'Neill the paper she'd been toy-ing with. “Jack, we can't afford for the Asgard to die out, and since you're going back to the same space-time to extract SG-1 anyway, it's just a matter of beaming an additional passenger aboard, whose absence from that time won't impact anything because as far as I've been able to determine, he died very soon after the...accident.”

He opened the sheet and stared at the writing. “You're kidding.”

Vala caught a glimpse of the time, date and spatial coordinates. It was meaningless to her, but then she wasn't terribly familiar with Earth history—something she certainly intended to rectify on their return.

Turning to leave, Carter said, “Makes sense, doesn't it?”

“What about this second set of coordinates? One hundred and thirty three miles, 60°55N 101°57E?”

“That's your safe arrival point twenty-four hours from now. The 'gate will be fully operational by then, so there'll be no delay in Herbert and I returning to our time with An. Good luck, Jack.”

Vala pushed herself off the chair and followed Carter to rear of the jumper. “Ah...General Carter, getting back to my first question, since we're not allowed to land anywhere and there's no little clock thingy on this—” She patted the time machine, which, she noted, was warm to the touch. “How is it that you know exactly when SG-1 are? Some sort of space-time loose thread detector? And since Dr. Lee has already programmed in the data from the Space Control Center mapping all that junk you have cluttering up your sky, why the co-ordinates on a teeny-weeny piece of paper?”

While that probably hadn't come out quite right, it was the thought that counted—and one General Carter appeared reluctant to answer because she was staring at something in the storage racks in the cargo bay. Vala followed the direction of her gaze to.. .the First Aid kit.

Before she could question Carter's interest in such a benign item, the General turned and walked down the ramp, speaking as she went. “The Ancient computer will respond to Jack's thoughts faster than information in a database. When Jack mentions the Cubsyou need to think about Cy Young's second no hitter beating the Highlanders.”

That little snippet of entirely irrelevant information raised a dozen more questions, but it was evident from the way the General strode across to the waiting team of technicians, that Vala would get no more answers. Returning an encouraging smile and brief wave from Dr. Lee, she raised the hatch, checked to make certain it was sealed, and went forward, muttering, “Cy Young. Second no hitter. Highlanders. Got it.”

The copilot's chair—did these things even need a copilot? she wondered as she settled into the seat beside O'Neill—was far more comfy than the awkward and pretentious Ha'tak throne she'd once occupied. “So, what other goodies do you have stashed away in Areas One through Fifty?”

O'Neill's dark glasses, as far as Vala could tell, served little purpose other than to lend his already saturnine features an air of inscrutability. She decided to prod it and see what popped out. “You haven't a clue, have you?”

There was a moment of stony silence followed by, “There are no Areas One to Fifty.”

Judging by his tone he was telling the truth, and oddly, it made complete sense. The Goa'uld, Vala decided, had never stood a chance against such an unpredictable and altogether perverse people.

CHAPTER SIX

“Jumper One you are cleared for takeoff,” Carter called over the radio.

“Thought we'd settled on Homer,” O'Neill muttered.

“I quite like Dr. Lee's Tempus Fugit,” Vala said.

The jumper lifted smoothly off the hangar floor, rotated a half turn and exited through a tall doorway and outside into bright sunlight. A paved surface stretched out before them. Apparently it had been built to allow their archaic winged aircraft to become airborne. Given the level of technology now available to them, Vala couldn't understand the attachment the inhabitants of the planet had for this primitive mode of transport, except perhaps that their 'jets' created criss-cross patterns called contrails in an otherwise cloudless sky.

“Tempus Fugit is the mission name,” General Carter informed them over the radio.

The way in which O'Neill's mouth twisted into an uncertain line prompted Vala to say, “It means—”

“I know what it means. I'd just as sooner forget the three months of Daniel teaching me Latin, is all.”

Vala strongly suspected that had something to do with the favorite cereal comment he'd made earlier. While it might prove vaguely entertaining to entice the story from him, she decided that it would be more fun extracting it from Daniel.

“Heading due east to an altitude of six hundred miles. We can't track you on radar now you're in stealth mode,” Carter added, “so advise any course deviation.”

“Why do we need stealth mode over miles and miles absolutely nothing?” Vala wondered. The view was singularly uninspiring. To their left, a wide swathe of dirty white saltpan glinted in the sunlight. Everywhere else, the land was sunbaked and barren, reminding Vala a little of Asdak's world.

An insert in the HUD adjusted to display a magnified view of people having what looked like a picnic, not far from the base. Vala had noticed them earlier, but hadn't paid them much mind, as picnics seemed to be all the rage on Earth. Then she realized that they were all facing in one direction—toward the base. “What are the looking at?”

“Us,” O'Neill replied.

“But they can't see us because we're invisible...right?”

The grin reappeared. “Exactly.”

It took her a moment to process that, before she smiled. “Oh! I've got it now. I saw this on Sol's tapes. You don't want any of the people who already know that you're using advanced alien technology to know that you're using advanced alien technology.”

With that mystery solved, she turned her interest to the darkening sky. The vague sense of oppression she felt when planet-bound receded at the first hint of stars.

Vala had often contemplated the stars as a child, wondering if they truly were, as her father had once told her, the hearth fires of distant worlds inhabited by terrible gods. The tiny jewels in the darkness had seemed too beautiful, too warm and inviting to be truly so bad.

How wrong she had been.

And yet, they had not lost their allure, and an old desire beckoned. “Do you ever wish you could just leave it all behind and keep going? Maybe find a simple little world where no one has ever heard of the Goa'uld or the Ori or even the Ancients?”

She was really just thinking out loud. It surprised her when O'Neill said, “Found a place like that once.”

“Really? How long did you stay?”

“Three months.”

She wondered if it had been boredom or a sense of duty that had pulled him away, but before she could ask him about it, the images flashing on the Asgard sensor drew her attention. “Oh my, you do have an awful lot of people who seem to be important enough to carry locator beacons.”

It wasn't a bad idea, she supposed. In the event of a full-scale attack by the Ori, key personnel could be beamed to safety and evacuated. “Do you think one of these is Senator Fishface? Here's an idea! We could test the Asgard transport on him if you like. Plonk him into one of the local brothels, perhaps? Might loosen him up a bit.”

Was that a smirk on O'Neill's face?

“Okay, base,” he announced for the benefit of Carter and the others back on Earth, without looking at Vala. “We're in position.”

The atmosphere blanketing the planet had thinned to a hazy glow across the curved horizon. Carefully checking the scanner again, Vala nodded and glanced at General O'Neill. “All set.”

“Then let's get this baby up to eighty-eight.”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

Despite her earlier remarks about the various temporal devices available on the market these days, and her casual acceptance of post hoc reasoning, she'd never actually heard of anyone who had successfully traveled in time. “When are we off to, first?”

O'Neill closed his eyes. “Figured maybe a nice round number, like fourteen hundred.”

A soft hum from the rear of the jumper increased in tempo, and the stars briefly flickered before shifting slightly. The cloud formations below had also altered significantly. The readout on the HUD indicated several changes in the atmospheric content, considerably less carbon dioxide and methane, for starters, and the Asgard scanner registered only hers and O'Neill's signals.

After a moment of expectant silence, Vala beamed at him. “Well, that seemed to have worked.”

The hum from the time machine increased and the stars shifted again and——the impact flung Vala from her chair and into the windscreen.

She'd been injured far too often, been in the thick of far too many space battles to allow the shock of pain that tore through her leg to interfere with her reactions. Nevertheless, recent experiences of being burned alive had her gulping back a cry at the conflagration engulfing the jumper.

The fireball vanished; either starved of oxygen in the vacuum of space or because they'd passed through whatever wreckage had resulted from what was clearly their arrival at the wrong time and place. Thanks to Dr. Lee's short course on things that go bump in the skies around Earth, she could only assume they'd encountered one of those big, bulky bits of expensive junk, like the International Space Station, which would undoubtedly irritate a few people.

Or not.

The jumper was spinning wildly. She caught a brief flash of what looked suspiciously like a chunk of Asgard ship with an escort of tinsel fragments trailing off in one direction, while the bulk of the ship, still venting atmosphere, limped away in the other.

Which could only have meant that the jumper had arrived partially embedded inside the ship's hull.

“Oops.”

Squeezing her eyes shut to clear the pinwheel lights blurring her vision, Vala tried extracting herself from the windscreen. Not so easy. Something bulky—O'Neill's legs, by the feel of it—was half on top of her, and the inertial dampeners had evidently decided that without his mind controlling them, they were free to do as they wished. Even injured and unconscious, though, O'Neill appeared to be maintaining some degree of control because the jumper's shield had done a commendable job. They hadn't burned to a crisp, for one thing, and from the lack of telltale hissing—and the fact they were still breathing—there were no leaks.

The first time jump had gone smoothly. Carter had provided them with this exact location, so it was likely this was no accident. It explained why Vala had smelled a scam. And the General's pointed glance at the First Aid kit took on a whole new meaning, too. “You could have given us just a bit more of a warning,” she muttered angrily. “I mean, how much trouble would it have been to say something along the lines of hang on!”

The pressure across her legs fell away and she spun backward.

Terrific, the inertial dampeners had kicked in but now they'd lost artificial gravity, presumably because O'Neill's unconscious mind was playing havoc with the controls. A segment of blue and white planet sped past the windscreen at an alarming rate, vanished, and then reappeared moments later. The jumper was spinning out of control in what looked—based on the next rotation—to be a rapidly decaying orbit.

Under any other circumstances Vala' priorities would be to regain control of the ship, assess the damage and find a way to either fix it or abandon ship—not necessarily in that order. Unfortunately jumpers were the one piece of technology the Ancients had—for whatever selfish reason—designed to be operated exclusively by them, or at least those bearing their genes. She grabbed a fistful of O'Neill's jacket in one hand, and, ducking the globs of blood streaming past, pushed against the upper bulkhead, hoping to jam him into the pilot's seat.

“General! C'mon, wakey wakey!”

Angling around beside him, she caught sight of his skull—literally, because even beneath the blood and gore, white bone was visible—and immediately abandoned that idea. Jack O'Neill wasn't going to wake at all unless he received medical attention very, very soon.

The Earth, partially in shadow now, skipped passed again and the interior of the jumper briefly plunged into darkness. Six telltale lights on the Asgard monitor caught her attention. She may not be able to access to the jumper's flight systems or the time machine, but Asgard technology was less finicky. Releasing her grip on O'Neill, she turned her full attention to the monitor.

Two signals were faint but so close that it was entirely possible they were one signal with a weak Doppler shifting accounting for the slight difference. The additional four were underground and immediately identifiable as Daniel, Cam, Sam and Teal'c.

General Carter had gotten them into this mess, Vala was certain of it; so she—or her younger self, at least—could bloody well get them out. Acquiring the four confirmed signals, she was about to beam them aboard when the transport also confirmed a lock on the one of the weaker signals, which, it now confirmed, was that of an Asgard.

Vala slammed the control and for a brief, gut-wrenching moment, she thought O'Neill had brought the jumper back in time several weeks too late. The stench of putrefaction hit her before the prone bodies had fully materialized in the tiny space behind the jumper's seats. Then a slightly damaged Asgard popped into existence on top of Daniel, prompting him to issue a high-pitched yelp.

“Well don't just float there!” Vala barked at the new arrivals—what was that smell?—who seemed to be doing a lot of gasping for air. “Help me get control of this thing.”

Having gone from full gravity to none to speak of in the blink of an eye, none of them appeared capable of controlling anything at the moment. The Asgard was in the worst shape, she noted as he floated past. A portion of his torso bore some gruesome scorch marks, but SG-1 didn't look all that good, either. And that smell... Something akin to a rotting swamp, was the closest she could come to describing it. The new arrivals also appeared to be covered in numerous bleeding bites of some kind. Bayou was home to either swarms of extraordinarily vicious insects or they'd found a bizarre health spa featuring beds of nails and mudpacks in dire need of perfumed additives, all of which left Vala with only one option. With no time to explain, she hauled herself out of the chair, and, pushing off the windshield, barreled through the jumper between Teal'c and Mitchell, to the rear compartment.

“What the hell is going on?” Mitchell called between gasps. His face was a bloodied mess, and there appeared to be a piece missing out of his nose.

“That cultural reference Daniel was talking about. The one with frying-pans and fires?” Vala went to grab the First Aid kit—which was not where she'd last seen it. Along with half the other so-called 'stowed' equipment, it was floating, or more accurately, tumbling around in free flight in the cargo bay.

“You call this a rescue?” Daniel gasped.

“A bit of gratitude wouldn't be misplaced, you know.”

Something collided with her wrist, knocking her grip free and sending her bumping into the time machine. Inside the cockpit, arms and legs were flaying around, trying to get a grip on something in the microgravity. It was like watching a badly choreographed dance in free fall, laced with pearls of burgundy spiraling around the cabin. More worrisome was the brief glimpse of the magenta hue through the windshield. The jumper's shields might protect them from the heat of reentry, but she doubted they would help much when the ship banged into the ground.

Carter pulled off her pack, grabbed the back of a chair behind General O'Neill and lowered herself into the copilot's chair. Typically, she seemed to grasp the urgency of the situation faster than the others. “The inertial dampeners must still partially be operational otherwise we wouldn't be tumbling.”

“Can you get this thing operational?” Mitchell demanded, shrugging out of his own pack and jamming it beside the seat and the bulkhead, before giving Teal'c a hand. In the micro-gravity Carter's pack just added to the confusion of things floating around inside the jumper.

“I can't fly a jumper,” Carter said in the closest thing to a panicky voice that Vala had ever heard her use. “I don't have the Ancient gene.”

“Ford never had the gene, either, but he stole one from Atlantis.”

“Maybe, but then it didn't have a time machine installed.”

A red cross on a large white box tumbled past Vala's field of vision. She snatched at it while Mitchell and Carter continued in argue the finer points of what should and should not be possible. As far as Vala was concerned, the subject of discussion was rather moot. Fact was, with O'Neill out of commission, they were all rather royally screwed.

After several aborted attempts, she finally latched onto the First Aid kit, and pulled open the lid. The sight of the Goa'uld hand device resting on top of the contents didn't come as much of a surprise as it should have. She batted away the useless bits in plastic bags floating out of the box and slipped the device over her fingers. Catapulting through the crowd of bodies, packs and weapons cluttering up the tiny jumper's main cabin, she zeroed in on the person wearing the least amount of pukey-green gunk. What had the others been doing on Bayou?

Someone grabbed her from behind. She was about to object when she realized it was Teal'c. He must have understood her intent because he was trying to steady her while Daniel positioned O'Neill into the pilot's seat and placed the General's hands on the controls. Carter was working on the Asgard transport. She glanced at the hand device and then looked at Vala. “If that doesn't work, I'll get ready to beam us out of here.”

Not exactly Vala's first choice, but better than the alternative since the view through the windscreen was now rather fiery, and gravity was definitely coming back into play. She held the device over the mangled mess of hair and bone that had been the side of O'Neill's head, and began a process first introduced to her by Qetesh.

As with everything undertaken by Qetesh, the Goa'uld's use of the device had been perverse and contradictory. Brutality applied with finesse, pleasure given purely to inflict pain; a potent and enormously effective strategy for maintaining control of one's minions, especially those Qetesh had kept as bedroom pets.

Still, it was this finesse and the residual traces of naquadah in her blood that allowed Vala to repair the damage to O'Neill. The ribbon of light exposed so much: an echo of thoughts and powerful, suppressed emotions beneath fragments of smashed bone and crushed blood vessels. While she couldn't discern the exact details, it took little more than her willingness to repair the damage to make it happen. Interestingly, there were deeper injuries that O'Neill had kept hidden; chest and knees and—

Daniel was looking over O'Neill's shoulder, his expression grim. “C'mon, Vala. We're running out of time!”

She wanted to snap back a reply, but the words wouldn't form. No matter, she need only concentrate on O'Neill's head... but her arm felt unnaturally heavy. The magenta glow now filling the jumper darkened to cherry, and then the hue of old and dried blood. Someone was yelling at her, but she had no idea who. She had to concentrate on the wound, the fracture in O'Neill's skull. The bones knit and she caught the fragmented stream of his thoughts...baseball, Cubs... World Series.

The words were important, strange words Carter had told her she must think while she and O'Neill remained connected in this most tenuous of ways, Cy Young's second no hitler beat the Highlanders.

And then she blacked out.

It was only moments later that she regained consciousness. Looking at O'Neill's head, she was relieved to sense that all the bits were where they were supposed to be, and his bleeding had stopped. Beneath the matted gore that had spilled down his face his injury was healed.

Why, then, the string of ruby pearls streaming past her vision? Pretty pearls, bittersweet and coppery, just like those on the beaches of her home world that had been a source of protein when the hunters of her village had returned empty handed. As children, she and her brother had often gathered the pulpy strings of sea-pearls disgorged by a restless sea and abandoned by the outgoing tide. Bubbles of blood-col-ored weed that had tasted of the clean ocean and far-off lands, places she had longed to visit.

A feeble voice, what little remained of her true self, perhaps, reminded her that she had no such experiences as a child. The rich memories were from a different host, compounded with those of countless others hosts taken by Qetesh long before the Goa'uld had set her sights on Vala.

You Tokra fools. You cannot separate us, for this is my body. I am Qetesh—nothing of the host remains! “It's not the General's blood—”

No! Don't listen to Qetesh; I'm still here! Please, by all that is merciful in the universe, give me back my life!

“ — it's Vala's!” I am your god and I will always possess you.

Voices called through the haze, pulling her away, separating them, taking her baby from her. Pearls of dark red clouded her vision, suffocating the light, and a cold stygian blackness took her soul.

You will never be free of me, Qetesh warned her from the darkness where she always lingered, for you have become me.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“We got maybe two hundred thousand feet to play with here, people!” Cam announced.

“Almost ready.” Sam couldn't be entirely certain because they were heading into the night side shadow of the planet, but from her glances through the windscreen when they'd been beamed aboard the jumper, it appeared that a section of Asgard ship—Loki's presumably, since the discredited scientist was currently lying on the floor of the jumper—had been damaged in some sort of accident.

With the General critically injured, Sam could only assume that Vala had picked up Loki's signal and beamed him aboard immediately she'd retrieved SG-1, which meant they'd already altered whatever time they were in. Dammit!

Being transported aboard the jumper while they'd been literally gasping their last breath had come as no great surprise to Sam. In the few minutes they'd been inside the cavern beneath Cheyenne Mountain, she'd figured once the SGC analyzed the data from the incoming wormhole, someone—as much as she was loath to admit it, probably McKay—would eventually work out what had happened. It wouldn't matter if they'd taken a week or a year to develop a solution, because McKay would also have known the only way that SG-1 could be rescued was by installing Asgard transport technology in the time-machine enhanced Ancient puddle jumper.

How McKay, or maybe Lee, had pinpointed exactly when they'd been sent was an entirely different matter. And while Sam was deeply grateful not to be pulling her last stench-filled breath inside a readymade tomb, the fact that something catastrophic had occurred as a result of the rescue attempt vindicated her argument that use of the Ancient time machine was dangerous under any circumstances.

Although she'd read McKay and Zelenka's reports on the jumper's systems, and spent hours going over the schematics, Sam wasn't personally as familiar with the Ancient ship as she would have liked. No one at Area 51 was, for that matter. This lack was due entirely to the limited number of Ancient gene bearers with the necessary security clearance and time to work with engineers in analyzing the ship's wide range of capabilities.

With O'Neill currently unconscious, she had no idea why the inertial dampeners and HUD were operational, but she doubted they would offer much protection when the ship impacted.

This had to have been McKay's bright idea, she decided. Only he would have been so conceited. “I'm going to beam us down well away from the crash site. We have to do everything possible to minimize our impact on this time.”

“Oh, we're gonna impact, all right,” Cam yelled back. “In about one hundred and fifty thousand feet!”

“C'mon Jack, snap out of it!” Daniel implored.

Sam glanced aft. Teal'c was applying a pressure bandage to a ragged gash on Vala's thigh. Her BDUs were stained dark with blood, but it wasn't enough to have caused her to pass out like that. It must have been the cumulative effort of her own wounds and dealing with the General's injury. Sam knew from personal experience how draining using a handheld healing device could be. If Teal'c could wake her, Vala may yet be able to bring O'Neill around. “How is she?”

“Unresponsive,” Teal'c replied, tying off the bandage.

“Coming up on one hundred thousand feet.” Cam was scrambling to collect additional items that had floated out of the First Aid kit. Every one of them, even Teal'c, needed medical attention as soon as possible.

Assuming they weren't dead in the next few minutes, or so.

Sam glanced outside, but the jumper's spin was still erratic. Lightning bolts and watery sheets fanning out across the windshield told her that they were coming down in the middle of a storm, while data from the HUD confirmed they were now over New Mexico, thankfully well clear of any major towns. Abandoning the jumper would maroon them in this time, but they were fast running out of options. She reluctantly turned to the Asgard transport controls and locked onto their signals.

And then a not-so muted curse alerted her to the fact that the General was coming around.

“Jack!” Daniel patted him on the cheek none-too gently, adding green gunk to blood already there. “Listen to me. You have to think about getting us out of here.”

Glazed eyes half opened. “Where...?”

“Not where, sir. When” Sam amended. “You came back in time to get us but something went wrong. I think you ran into an Asgard ship.”

“Carter?” O'Neill's face screwed up. His voice was slurred. “Distinctly recall you being against time travel.”

“Jack!” Daniel shook the General's shoulders in frustration. “We don't have time for a discussion. Just get us out of here!”

“Fifty thousand,” Cam called, grabbing Sam's discarded pack and the P-90s. Cam was getting ready bail. He obviously didn't share Daniel's optimism that the General would recover in time to save them from crashing.

Cam was wrong, however. The jumper's flight systems suddenly powered up, the HUD flickered into full color and a remarkably well-rendered set of images appeared. Sundry floating debris dropped to the floor as the inertial dampeners and artificial gravity both kicked in.

“That's it, Jack,” Daniel said encouragingly. “You're doing it.”

“Woulda been a great game,” O'Neill mumbled.

“Ten thousand,” Cam announced. “Plus or minus, but the minuses are catchin' up real fast.”

“Yes, yes, I'm sure it would have been a wonderful game.” The words tumbled out of Daniel's mouth. “Jack... listen to me. Can you concentrate on getting us into orbit?”

“Eight thousand!” Cam grabbed the back of her seat. “Sam? It's time to get outta here!”

“Just a minute. He's doing it.” Sam scanned the controls, hoping she wasn't imagining things. She really, really did not want to abandon the jumper.

“We don't have a minute!”

O'Neill blinked again and shook his head as if to clear it.. “Carter said...gotta go back four hundred years, first.”

“Five thousand feet and that ground is coming up damned fast—Sam!”

“Or was it three hundred, then forward two hundred?”

From the cargo bay she heard the time machine's consol hum to life, and something rippled over them. Surprised that the General had actually read her report on the jumper's log and time travel capabilities, Sam looked around in wonder at the stars. “It's working!”

She barely had time to register the relief on the faces of her companions before another ripple passed over them—and the jumper slammed sideways and began tumbling again, this time, end over end.

The inertial dampeners compensated a moment too late, throwing Sam out of the copilot's seat and into Cam. Bright blue, early morning sky filled the windscreen before the ground spun into view long enough to tell her that they were now at least fifty thousand feet above a densely forested landscape. The HUD flicked wildly through a dozen images, but O'Neill seemed coherent enough to straighten out the jumper's erratic flight path. As they leveled off, Sam glanced up to discover a Ha'tak plummeting toward the ground, a fiery tail in its wake.

Sam's head reeled with the implications. Two time jumps and five seconds earlier it had been the wreckage from an Asgard ship, and the jumper had been less than five thousand feet from impact. Now they were at fifty thousand feet, looking at a damaged Ha'tak?

“We must have hit the Ha'tak when we jumped forward to our time!” Cam remarked unnecessarily.

Ignoring the pain from the dozens of stinging slices down her legs and arms, Sam disentangled herself from him, grabbed her chair and awkwardly pulled herself upright relative to the Asgard transport device. They were not out of danger, yet.

“Oh, that's bad,” Daniel declared. “That's going to upset the Jaffa.”

Although he still appeared to be half-out of it, the General was struggling to bring the jumper under control, but at least the inertial dampeners and gravity were working at maximum efficiency, giving them a considerably more stable ride.

“Like they're not already pissed enough.” Apparently satisfied they were no longer in imminent peril of crashing, Cam pushed past the still unconscious Vala to check on Loki, who'd been all but squashed beneath Teal'c's considerable bulk.

“That's the least of our problems. When the Ha'tak hits, it's going to explode with the force of a mid-yield nuke.” Sam glanced at O'Neill. He was blinking and shaking his head, trying to focus. “Sir, are you okay?”

“What the hell was a Ha'tak doin' skulking around the place, anyway?”

“The mere fact that it did not reveal itself,” Teal'c observed with a scowl, “indicates it should not have been there.”

“Got a point, there, T.” With Daniel's help, Jack pulled himself upright and grabbed the controls. “Base, this is Jumper One, do you copy?”

There was no response.

“Base, this is Jumper One. We've recovered SG-1, but we've got a little problem, here.”

The jumper continued to fly erratically. Sam peered at the HUD. The detail was exceptional, and somewhat reassuring. The region they were flying over was sparsely populated, which meant casualties from the impact of the Ha'tak would be minimal. A glance at the map coordinates confirmed why: 60°55N 101°57E. They were over Siberia.

But that Ha'tak was going in fast and she hadn't been exaggerating when she'd predicted the result of the explosion. Intending to beam the ships' crew to safety, she turned to the Asgard transport controls, but the screen was dead. One look inside the access panel beside her, told her why. She stared in dismay at the shattered crystals. “Sir, we—”

Without warning, the interior of the jumper was flooded with a searing light. Sam caught a glimpse of O'Neill lifting his hands to shield his face, but the photosensitive windscreen had already compensated, protecting them from a burst of light as intense as the sun. Had it got through to their eyes, it would have burned through their corneas and blinded them permanently. The Ha'tak had either self-destructed or the engines had blown moments before impact.

“General!” Cam called in a voice that indicated he clearly understood the danger. “We have to get—”

“Doing it!” O'Neill was already angling the jumper into a near vertical climb. “Hang on.”

Even at maximum power, Sam wasn't confident the shields could deal with such a close proximity to the equivalent of a nuclear detonation. A high-pitched whine diverted her attention to the cargo bay. Sparks were arcing out of the time machine.

The Shockwave hit the jumper with the force of a giant fist slamming her back into the seat, momentarily overriding the inertial dampeners. She'd lost count how many times that morning her vision had started graying out from erratic g-forces, but surprisingly, the dampeners rapidly compensated.

Something else from inside the jumper wasn't faring so well, though, because acrid smoke was billowing into the cockpit. She heard a fire extinguisher, and, trusting her teammates to do whatever was necessary, blinked away the white spots before her eyes and turned her attention back to the Asgard transport scanner.

They may yet need to abandon the jumper.

“Don't waste your time, Carter, it's cactus.” O'Neill's voice was surprisingly steady. He continued to angle the jumper upward, attempting to gain as much altitude as possible which, under the circumstances, was their safest option. “Base, this is Jumper One. Carter!”

“Sir?”

Rolling his eyes, he snapped, “Not you, Carter. Base, I may have understated the little part of that problem. Those time-space coordinates you gave me? Not so good.”

She worried he was hallucinating. What he was yelling into the radio was making no sense. The sprinkling of stars thickened as they headed into what Sam hoped would be a stable orbit. She needed time to assess the damage and consider their options. Glancing over her shoulder she saw that Teal'c had the fire under control and Vala, who was on the deck just in front of the time machine, was beginning to come around.

“Loki?” Sam asked. Cam was bending over the Asgard, who was crumpled up against the bulkhead between the cockpit and the cargo bay.

Abandoning his attempt to make contact with the ground, O'Neill abruptly turned in his seat, and, eyeing the Asgard demanded, “What the hell is he doing here?”

Sam met his incredulous look. “I assume Vala beamed him aboard after his ship was damaged.”

“He's pretty banged up,” Cam reported. “Cuts and burns. I'm not exactly an expert in Asgard first aid but I'd say we better think about getting him some help real soon.”

“Carter! Dammit, respond!” O'Neill demanded tersely.

Exchanging a worried look with her, Daniel said soothingly, “Jack? You don't have to shout. Sam's sitting right beside you.”

“Ewww,” Vala moaned and sat up. “What is that horrible pong?”

“Eau de Bayou.” Cam let out a low whistle as he turned from Loki to help Vala into the seat behind Sam and caught sight of the damage the exploding Ha'tak had left in its wake. “Man, take a look at that.”

The enlarged images on the HUD confirmed Sam's first thoughts regarding the impact site. “The Ha'tak exploded before impact. Only an airburst could have caused that much damage over such a large area.”

“Reminds me of the forest around Mount Saint Helens after it blew,” Cam said. '“Cept a whole lot bigger. The Russian government is gonna be mighty pissed about this.”

And a lot of Jaffa had probably died in that crash, too. Sam felt the full weight of that responsibility. Wiping a filthy sleeve across her face, she looked at O'Neill. “Sir, you shouldn't have come back for us.” The diplomatic aftermath of this alone could shred what little remained of their alliance with the Jaffa.

An odd expression crossed his face. “That's what she said you'd say.”

“Who?” The images on the HUD altered to show the jumper's low orbital track, southwest across the Ural Mountains.

He shot her a somewhat jaundiced look. “You.”

“General you, in fact,” Vala spoke up, easing her wounded leg into a more comfortable position. “You know, with those little stars on her elderly shoulders and a remote time-traveling DHD device that apparently you will later bequeath to someone named Cassandra? She came back in time and told us when to find you.”

Comprehension hit Sam with the force of a bolt from a zat gun. Brushing aside a momentary twinge of guilt for assuming that this was McKay's fault, she rapidly processed the information. While she had often wondered about Cassie's hand device, the only circumstance in which she could envisage using a time machine was because something so catastrophic had occurred that the risk of fracturing, possibly even looping the timeline, paled by comparison.

Elizabeth Weir's inadvertent journey back in time ten thousand years had unquestionably saved Atlantis and the entire expeditionary force. That alone had proved that not all time travel ended badly—at least for the future. Still, it was a decision Sam doubted she would ever take lightly. This trip through time had to be incredibly important.

“Ah... Jack?” Daniel leaned forward and gently clasped his shoulder, thinking—as Sam was a moment ago—that O'Neill was hallucinating. “Your head didn't look so good when we got here.”

The General turned in his seat, pointedly eyed Daniel up and down, and sniffed loudly. “Nothing wrong with my nose.”

“It's okay, Daniel. I...think I understand.” Sam said, still trying to grapple with the thought that future problems would demand such drastic measures.

Breaking into the uncertain silence that followed, O'Neill looked around at them. “Anyone's radio working?”

Daniel tapped his com unit. “Testing.”

“Mine is functioning,” Teal'c confirmed.

“Same here,” Cam added.

So was Sam's, but when she flicked through the other main frequencies, she was met with nothing but unremitting static. “I don't think the lack of response problem is our units.” The images on the HUD offered no immediate answers. “Sir, can you think about detecting satellites currently in orbit?”

Nodding, he said, “Lee programmed in all the latest data from the Space Control Center.”

Which was even better, but when the display turned up nothing but the expected scattering of micrometeorites, she added, “There should be several thousand communication and military craft currently in orbit.”

Or perhaps the term currently was wrong. Something about the co-ordinates of the Ha'tak crash site tugged at her memory. She began skimming through every radio frequency from one to nine hundred and fifty one Megahertz, only half paying attention to the conversation, hoping not to confirm what she suspected.

“Well, we did manage to rescue you all,” Vala announced from behind. “At great personal risk, I might add. I think some thanks might be in order.”

Thumbing over his shoulder in the direction of Loki, O'Neill said, “You picked up the wrong Asgard.”

Even Sam turned to stare at her. Vala threw her hands up, looking wounded. “Oh, come on! You can't blame me for that! Nobody thought to program in his particular signal—a rather compelling oversight if ever there was one—and his was the only signal I could lock on to.”

“Who were you supposed to collect?” Cam asked.

“SG-1, of course. And some Asgard geneticist named An.”

“What?” Sam spun around in her seat and stared at Loki.

“Do you think they'll notice a difference?” Vala added hopefully. “Let's be honest, they really do all look alike, don't you think?”

Coming back in time to save herself made no sense to Sam. Neither would she have come back to save an Asgard geneticist. Thor had told them the High Council had accepted the possibility their race would die out. Considerably more must be at stake.

Then there was the fact that she was certain that even in the future—if she'd wanted Vala to collect An and not Loki—she would have made certain Vala had been given the correct frequency.

Apparently she wasn't the only one to think there was something very wrong with this picture.

“Okay, everyone, time out!” Cam said. “With all due respect, General, exactly what is going—?”

A muffled bang from what sounded like one of the drive pods was followed by a sharp jolt. The jumper veered to port before abruptly angling down.

“Crap,” O'Neill muttered.

Before Sam had more than a chance to check their trajectory, a second muted explosion spun the jumper to starboard, and their angle of descent increased sharply.

The General pinned her with an icy glare as they once more began to plummet toward the ground. “Carter, next time you go back in time and pull rank on me, can you keep in mind how much I hate surprises?”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Using webbing from the cargo storage, Teal'c strapped the unconscious Loki across the padded seats in the jumper's aft section. While the brief fire in the temporal device had caused only minimal damage to this section of the vessel, the chemical residue from the foam appeared to be adversely affecting the Asgard's breathing.

That they would be unable to maintain orbit much longer was clear, and while SG-1 had been confronted with similar situations in the past, it in no way mitigated the sense of urgency that now permeated the small ship. Colonel Mitchell was hurriedly unpacking a laptop that had been stowed with other items in the cargo nets, while Daniel Jackson had taken over the radio and was attempting to make contact with the ground.

“Dampers, anti-grav and shields are responding,” O'Neill announced. “But I can't maintain control of the drive pods.”

Colonel Carter had opened an overhead compartment and was examining the bank of exposed crystals. “I don't understand why not, sir. The systems are interlinked. If you can access shields, you should be able to power the drive system.”

“Lee was futzing with something in there before we took off.”

“Which, translated, means that Dr. Lee reconfigured the systems so that the power modules in all onboard systems were automatically interchangeable,” Vala explained.

“In that case there must be a physical break between the power modules and the drive pods.” Colonel Carter closed the first compartment, opened another and quickly scanned the contents.

When the view outside jerked slightly and their approach vector to Earth altered yet again, O'Neill amended his diagnosis of the problem. “Okay, I've got sporadic control. It seems to be more along the lines of a short circuit.”

A choking noise from his Asgard patient caught Teal'c's attention. He moved the failing scientist into a position where he might better draw breath, but doubted it would be of much assistance. “Loki is having great difficulty breathing. I believe he will be dead before we land.”

Vala sighed heavily and rose to her feet without comment. The injury to her leg or perhaps her recent loss of blood caused her to stumble. She would have fallen had not Colonel Mitchell caught her. “Careful, you're in no shape to be moving around.”

Refraining from making one of her customary remarks, Vala allowed the Colonel to assist her into the cramped cargo bay and sit opposite Loki.

In the cockpit, O'Neill was explaining to Colonel Carter and Daniel Jackson the manner of General Carter's arrival through the 'gate. Teal'c presented Vala with the hand device that had earlier slipped from her fingers. Nodding her gratitude, she closed her eyes against the pain and played the light across her injured leg.

Loki's chest deflated and then stilled.

As Apophis's First Prime, the burden of choice had often fallen to Teal'c, a choice between the death of one or many, of thousands or millions. Freedom from enslavement to false gods had not released him from that burden; indeed, the choices he now made on behalf of the Jaffa were laced with what Daniel Jackson had often referred to as moral grays.

Loki's death in whatever time this might be, would prevent much grief and pain to many Tau'ri abductees, including O'Neill. And yet it would also result in the loss of young Jonathan O'Neill who, Teal'c understood, was—in 2006—doing well in high school and preparing to enter college. Mindful of Colonel's Carter's warning that altering the past could impose a greater evil on the future, Teal'c said, “Loki is unable to draw breath.”

“Here.” Forehead beaded with perspiration, Vala ceased working on her injury and, accepting Teal'c outstretched hand, allowed him to support her weight as she knelt on the deck beside the injured Asgard.

“Are you certain you have sufficient strength?” Teal'c asked. His first encounter with Vala had left him in doubt of her commitment to further the cause of anyone but herself. Those sentiments had been allayed, somewhat, when her actions had destroyed the Ori's first Supergate. Since her return to the SGC, Teal'c sensed she was striving hard to throw off the burden that she wore as a victim of Goa'uld enslavement, and prove herself a worthy member of SG-1.

“You know, I've never actually used this on an Asgard.” Vala offered Teal'c a wan smile and raised the hand device. “But what's the worst that can happen? He'll be dead or I'll pass out before we crash. Not a bad idea, really. I'll miss that sudden stop when we hit the ground. That's going to hurt, you know.” A soft beam of light from the device moved across the Asgard's torn leg and fragile looking chest.

“We're not gonna crash,” O'Neill called from the cockpit. “Splash a little, maybe, if I can't get this reentry vector to improve. Teal'c, prepare to open the hatch the moment I say so. We don't want to be caught inside this thing as it sinks.”

The shifting view through the windshield told Teal'c that power to the drive pods continued to be erratic. While O'Neill's control of the inertial dampeners and gravity within the jumper remained undiminished, Teal'c knew Vala's remark about the sudden stop when they hit the ground was a sound assessment of their situation. Even if O'Neill managed to bring the jumper down in the water, surviving the impact would be of little use if they were required to abandon the jumper into water cold enough to kill them within minutes.

He scanned the cargo racks for a life raft. The Tau'ri military were exceptionally efficient in equipping them with a range of useful items.

The light from the hand device faded and Vala slumped back against the damaged time machine. “I just need a minute.”

“Perhaps that will be sufficient,” Teal'c suggested. Although the healing was incomplete, the Asgard's visible injuries had faded and his breathing had resumed.

“Since we're not getting through on the radio,” Colonel Mitchell said, “did anyone think to bring a cell phone?” •

“Wait!” Daniel Jackson held the earpiece of his radio close. “I'm picking up a transmission. It's fragmented and, well... weird.” He switched the broadcast to loudspeaker.

A few bars from an unfamiliar orchestral piece, scratchy and of poor quality, filled the jumper before fading to a broken voice. “This is Lee...Forest, broadcasting...you from the USS Ohio...selected phonograph music from....”

O'Neill looked around in confusion. “What the hell is a submarine doing broadcasting music?”

Eyes widening in comprehension, Colonel Carter turned from her examination of another bank of crystals. “Sir, I don't think that's the submarine Ohio. I think it might be the battleship.”

Colonel Mitchell paused in his repacking a container of MREs. “How can you tell?”

“The radio operator's name: Lee de Forest.”

Colonel Mitchell stared at her in disbelief. “And you just happen to know the name of all the radio operators who ever served on the battleship Ohio, I suppose? There's something very freakish about that, Sam.”

Colonel Carter moved into the rear of the jumper, indicating that she needed to access the area where Vala was resting. “Sir, what year did the Cubs win the World Series?”

Teal'c assisted Vala to her feet and seated her beside Loki.

“1908.” Despite his assured reply, O'Neill glanced back, revealing his expression to be one of uncertainty. “Carter, why do you care about the World Series? And what the hell does that have to do with the Ohio?”

Colonel Carter's smile was not one that conveyed humor. “Figured as much. Same year as the Tunguska incident.”

“Oh...great.” Daniel Jackson's head dropped in resignation.

“You mean that big old meteor that blew up over Siberia? The one all the UFO nuts think...” Colonel Mitchell's eyebrows lifted. “Oh, c'mon, Sam, you're not serious!”

Working as she spoke, Colonel Carter set up an interface between her laptop and the jumper's secondary control panel. “The transmission from the Ohio was a groundbreaking event in the history of broadcasting—which is why I know the announcer's name—although they didn't call it 'broadcasting' at the time. All through June and July of 1908, De Forest was on board USS Ohio, playing phonograph music to Mare Island Station.”

Even Daniel Jackson stared at her in disbelief.

“Not every class I took at the Academy was about astrophysics, you know,” she said, a little defensively.

“Carter,” O'Neill said, his voice edged with concern. Between attempting to slow the jumper's descent and locating a place to land, Teal'c doubted that he had time to puzzle out the paradox of either time travel or the Ohio. “I admit my math isn't all that great, but ninety-eight years out?”

“Um...that discrepancy may be my doing.” Vala opened her eyes and, assuming an air of wounded innocence, stared pointedly at Colonel Carter. “But don't blame me. After all, you're the one who told me to do it.”

“Do what?” Daniel Jackson demanded.

“When you're healing someone there's a sort of two way communication thing going, and General Carter told me to think, 'Cy Young's second no hitter beat the Highlanders'. Now, I have absolutely no idea what that's supposed to mean, but since General Carter was the one who provided the space-time coordinates and knew all about the accident to both the Ha'tak and Asgard ships, I'm betting she knew we'd hit them.”

“Oh, man.” Colonel Mitchell's voice was tinged with awe. “Cy Young's no hitter was June 30, 1908. What date was the Tunguska meteorite?”

“June 30, 1908,” O'Neill and Colonel Carter replied simultaneously.

Colonel Carter fixed her gaze on Colonel Mitchell. She did not look pleased. “You can recall some guy's batting average fifty years before you were born, and you think I'm freakish?”

“Hey, I used to collect baseball cards when I was a kid. I thought everybody knew that.”

“I, too, was aware of the date of the Tunguska event, Colonel Carter,” Teal'c said, curious to note that it appeared to have been factually recorded as an alien UFO.

“For those of you not too busy discussing UFOs and freaks,” O'Neill interrupted, “you might be interested to know I can't get the cloak operational. We're coming in low over the Atlantic.”

“Unless the entire East Coast is in the middle of a brown-out.” Colonel Mitchell peered through the windshield and frowned. “I'd say this is definitely not 2006.”

Given recent Tau'ri history, Teal'c understood the concern demonstrated by both O'Neill and Colonel Mitchell. “Our arrival is not likely to go unnoticed,” he said.

“Is that a problem?” Vala asked, glancing up at him.

Colonel Carter abandoned the computer and seated herself opposite Vala in anticipation of their imminent impact.

“Not if this is 1908,” Mitchell observed, “because they've barely mastered heavier-than-air flight. And you're saying the future Sam all.but sent us here?”

Colonel Carter's expression grew troubled. “The only reason I can think of as to why I wouldn't have warned you about the Ha'tak and Asgard ships would be because I didn't want you to avoid the consequences.”

Evidently still confused, Vala said, “Why would we have wanted to avoid them?”

Taking a deep breath, Colonel Carter replied, “Because they might not be something you'd be willing to live with.”

“Thousand feet!” O'Neill warned. “Okay everyone, hold on. This thing has the drag coefficient of your average house brick.”

Although the night was moonless, Teal'c caught sight of reflections from along the shoreline. Their descent was indeed rapid. O'Neill had done well to get them across the Atlantic to US territory. Checking on Loki to ascertain that the Asgard was secure, he seated himself beside Colonel Carter in the cargo bay.

Bracing herself in anticipation of the impact Vala bit her lip and stared at them fearfully. “This could be quite messy, you know.”

Teal'c had long since abandoned any fear he might once have experienced when confronted with a situation over which he had no control. Either they would land safely, or they would not. Calmly meeting Vala's worried gaze, he replied, “Perhaps.”

At the last moment, the jumper tipped and headed directly toward what appeared to be a lightly wooded area. O'Neill had once more proven his worth as a pilot. The inertial dampeners continued to function well, and when the impact came it was virtually unnoticeable.

“Everybody okay back there?” O'Neill asked, turning in his seat to briefly examine each of his passengers.

“Well, that was something of an anticlimax,” declared Vala. Using her fingertips, she carefully prodded her previously injured thigh. “In fact, I think that little adrenaline rush has given me the boost I needed.”

“We're not out of trouble yet.” Colonel Carter leaned down, collected her laptop from the deck, and positioned it on the seat beside the secondary control panel. “Sir, if I'm right and this is 1908, we can't allow anyone to find us, which means our priority has to be to cloak the jumper and then try and restore power to the drive pods so we can fly it out of here to someplace less...public.”

“Where exactly is here?” Colonel Mitchell enquired, standing.

“Rhode Island, I think. Somewhere near the Washington Bridge.” O'Neill did not appear to be entirely confident of that statement.

“For a moment there I was sure we were going to end up swimming across Long Island Sound.” Daniel Jackson peered through the windscreen into the darkness beyond. What little light filtered through was tinged with the vague ambient glow typical of any city.

“While all this is absolutely fascinating,” Vala said, with an eye on Loki. “I think we really, really should open that hatch. I've taken care of the worst of your little Asgard's burns, but I don't think this icky smell is helping his breathing. Or mine for that matter.” She coughed several times.

“Oh, so someone else noticed the air is kinda thick in here—not that I'm pointing fingers or anything.” O'Neill eased himself to his feet in a manner that told Teal'c he was favoring his ribcage. Vala had apparently failed to complete her treatment of him with the hand device prior to passing out.

Casting his gaze over the bloodied, mud-spattered members of SG-1, O'Neill added, “Just out of curiosity, what's with everyone's used mud-dipped, verdant-tinged dartboard look?”

“Let's just say the diplomatic mission to Bayou isn't coming home.” Making no attempt to disguise his anger, Colonel Mitchell pulled a collection of dog tags from his pocket and briefly held them aloft. “General, can we volunteer the IOC to go on one of these 'fact finding' missions to verify the credibility of our reports?”

“No arguments from me,” O'Neill growled, moving stiffly to the rear of the jumper. “Remind me to arrange it as soon as we get back home. Okay, T, open up and let's see if I'm right about where we parked this thing.”

Vala elbowed Sam with an optimistic smile. “See, he knows we're going to find a way home.”

Colonel Carter was too engrossed in her computer to reply. Colonel Mitchell raised his P-90 toward the aft section and nodded. Teal'c opened the hatch to reveal a dark clearing surrounded by rather unremarkable woodland. He listened carefully while he scanned the moonless night. The air was still and balmy, and tainted with the odor of burnt oil and coal. In the near distance, a horn, the sound of a boat, perhaps, echoed across the water.

“Carter, find out what you need to get this thing operational again,” O'Neill ordered. “Mitchell, you and Teal'c secure the—”

“Ah...Jack,” Daniel Jackson interrupted, pointing back toward the interior of the jumper.

The lack of insect sounds and soft scrape of bush had already alerted Teal'c to the presence of something alien in the vicinity, and he now saw that a face cupped by one hand was pressed against the jumper's windshield. While he could not discern the words, from the movement of his lips and emphatic manner in which the young man pounded the transparent material with his other fist, it was evident he was attempting to establish if the occupants were in need of assistance.

Colonel Carter looked up from her laptop and her shoulders slumped. “Oh, great.”

“Maybe if we ignore him, he'll go away?” Vala suggested. And then she wiggled her fingers at the young man, and smiled at him.

“More likely he'll go for help.” Daniel Jackson also waved at the newcomer through the windshield, signaling his assurance.

“We're going to have to stop him,” O'Neill said.

Exiting the jumper, Colonel Mitchell and Teal'c backed into the shadows of the nearby trees. The sounds of branches scraping against the jumper's hull told him the man was most likely alone as he made his way to the hatch at the rear of the ship.

“Hello! Are you folks all right in there? Ah!” The man recoiled, flinging his arms up to his face in response to the unexpected light from Colonel Mitchell's raised P-90.

Teal'c caught the man before he could flee, quickly checking him for weapons. “He is unarmed.” And he was little more than a youth, average in height but thin and sallow faced. He stared up at Teal'c with pale, terrified eyes.

“It's okay, buddy, we're not gonna hurt you,” Colonel Mitchell assured the youth, albeit keeping his light—and with it, his weapon—trained on him.

“Out here all by yourself, were you?” O'Neill enquired, shining the light from his P-90 into the surrounding woodland.

“You...you don't look like Martians!” the youth stammered, blinking owlishly in the blinding beam.

“No, no we're not,” Daniel Jackson replied from just inside the jumper. “Where are your friends?”

Teal'c had learned early in his training to ascertain the state of mind of any prisoner he held. The youth felt weak and bony beneath his hands and, while fearful, lacked the stench of mortal terror inspired by a Goa'uld. If anything, Teal'c sensed in him a different form of fear, one that came with despair, and yet that emotion was already transforming into curiosity and wonder. Certainly there was no intent to flee or fight.

“No...no... I...” Stammering, the boy swallowed and pointed an unsteady finger over his shoulder, in the direction of the river. “I was riding my bicycle. I mean, I wasn't actually riding it at the time, but then I saw your sky ship...” He laughed nervously. “I know it's kind of silly of me, but when you landed, I thought for a moment the events in Mr. Wells's book were actually coming true!” Examining O'Neill's face more closely, the youth declared, “You're hurt! I... I can go for help if you want. The—”

From within the jumper, Loki groaned and sat up. “What... happened?”

The boy stiffened and stumbled backward into Teal'c, while Daniel Jackson muttered, “Great.”

“Mitchell, Teal'c,” O'Neill said, “you guys in good enough shape to secure the area?”

“I'm fine, sir,” Mitchell responded. “Just a few mosquito bites.”

“My Tretonin is working, O'Neill.” Teal'c released the boy into O'Neill's hands and turned with Colonel Mitchell to search the area.

CHAPTER NINE

Daniel would have been the first to admit that he was no fashion guru, but the teenager's stiff, high collared shirt, waistcoat, and pants tucked into long gray socks was of a style indicative of the early nineteen hundreds. And while that wasn't a confirmation of them actually being in 1908, it backed up the evidence so far, including his brief impression of the city as they had come in for a landing.

While he respected Sam's concern about interfering with the timeline, the fact remained that her older self had sent Jack and Vala back in time to rescue them. Daniel wasn't going to pretend he understood what was going on here, but they'd been through this once before. The easiest solution would be to get the jumper operational, and then zat the kid and leave him to wake up thinking he'd dreamed the whole thing.

The only problem with that plan was the teenager was so sickly looking, Daniel doubted his heart would stand the shock.

“What's your name, son?” Jack's tone had already turned paternal.

The kid's gaze was still fixed on Loki, who was standing at the top of the ramp radiating indignation. “The Asgard High Council will hear of this outrage!”

“Oh, please,” Jack shot back over his shoulder. “After what you did to me?”

“Ah, assuming this is 1908, that actually hasn't happened yet, Jack,” Daniel reminded him.

“Assuming it's 1908?” The boy stared at them in wide-eyed wonder. “You mean you don't know?”

“You primitive humans could not have been the ones responsible for the destruction of my ship!” Loki declared, as if the boy hadn't spoken.

Not surprisingly, the idea of mere humans being able to destroy anything constructed by the Asgard was an affront to his racial pride.

“I was under the impression it was An's ship,” Daniel reminded him.

“And we didn't actually destroy it...did we?” Vala turned to Sam for confirmation on that point. “Just dented it a little? I mean there were those few bits that fell off, but I'm sure most of it is still perfectly usable.”

The Asgard glared at each of them in turn. “I demand you return me to my ship!”

“Loki—” Sam came from within the jumper to talk to him. “It is Loki, right?”

The Asgard's eyelids batted up and down a couple of times. “Perhaps.”

“Here's an idea,” Vala said brightly before Daniel could stop her interfering. “Why don't we all get to know one another?” Walking down the ramp and gesturing to each of them, she said, “This is Colonel Samantha Carter and Daniel Jackson. The grumpy one is General O'Neill. The slightly miffed gray fellow behind me is an Asgard named Loki. I'm Vala Mal Doran, and you're—?”

“Love...love...” stammered the teenager, accepting her outstretched hand.

“I know,” Vala said with an indulgent smite. “I have that affect on most men.”

“I mean... Lovecraft. Howard Lovecraft, ma'am. Pleased to meet you.”

The pain from the cuts in Daniel's legs was distracting but he doubted there'd been anything in the dartballs to trigger auditory hallucinations.

“Oh.” Vala seemed a little disappointed to discover the lad wasn't instantly smitten with her, but she recovered quickly, turning to smile at everyone. “See how much nicer things are now that we've gotten to know one another?”

But Daniel was staring at the lad, looking almost as awestruck as the young man himself. Daniel managed to speak. “Howard Phillips Lovecraft?” he asked.

“Why, yes!” The kid's eyes widened in alarm. “How did you know?”

It had been a long time since Daniel could honestly say something surprised him so much that the hairs on the back of his neck actually stood up, but that's what he felt now—not from dread, but from a bizarre sense of destiny, fate, or something that even with two bouts as an Ascended being to call on, he could not define.

He'd often wondered if his and Sam's visit to Catherine Langford in 1969 had triggered Catherine's renewed interest in the Stargate, and thus, her introducing him to the SGC. Could the same thing be happening, here? As far as Daniel could recall, Lovecraft had never revealed what he'd stumbled across that June night in 1908 when he'd come down to the park by the river, contemplating suicide. But something profound, something life-altering had turned the teenager from his intended death, to writing tales of warring alien gods who'd created humans as a slave race; remarkably prophetic tales that had planted the germ of an idea in Daniel's mind.

Loki started bickering with Sam, but Daniel ignored them, fixing all his attention on the young man. “You mentioned a book. War of the Worlds, wasn't it?”

“Daniel!” Sam's voice held a sharp warning. “No.”

He glanced up at her and smiled. “But we already have, Sam. Just like we were responsible for the destruction of a Goa'uld Ha'tak over Tunguska. Our presence here may be more than coincidental. It may have even been necessary.”

“Daniel!”

“Sam, this is Howard Phillips Lovecraft.”

“And...?”

“As in H.P. Lovecraft.”

In the shadows of the jumper's interior, he couldn't read Sam's expression, but he could hear the shock in her voice. “Oh, my God.”

Loki's tone shifted from irate to patronizing. “I find it difficult to believe such a primitive race could master the operations of a temporal device. And you claiming responsibility for the destruction of that Ha'tak is absurd.”

“Banged your ship up, didn't we?” Jack crossed his arms over his P-90 and turned to Daniel. “Lovecraft, huh?”

“Haven't you ever read—” Daniel stopped himself. “No, of course you haven't. Jack, it's okay. Howard won't tell anyone about us. At least, not in so many words.”

Jack's expression was hard to read in the darkness, but Daniel felt the subtle shifting in his stance. While he might not understand what Daniel was telling him, he'd run with it. He made no attempt to stop Howard taking a step up the ramp and openly gaping at Loki.

“Mr. Lowell was right, then. Mars really does have life!”

“We're not from Mars,” Daniel corrected. “We're from...” He couldn't believe he was about to say this, but he could only be guided by what he knew from Lovecraft's writings, and so it seemed the only safe thing to say. “How about we call it Planet X?”

“Daniel.” Sam sounded unconvinced. “Are you certain about this?”

“If not—” Vala held up her hand and displayed the ribbon device— “quick little zap and the problem's fixed.”

“That won't be necessary,” Daniel assured them.

Jack studied the kid for a moment longer and then shrugged. “Hope you know what you're doing.” He stepped onto the ramp, pushed past the still complaining Loki and headed into the jumper. “Carter, what's our status?”

“We may be in more trouble than I first thought, sir.”

“There's a surprise. Can you be just a little more specific?”

Sam went inside to retrieve her laptop and opened it on top of the time machine. “The relay from the power modules to the jumper's drive system is burned out, presumably from one of the explosions. I'm not even certain how you managed to land.”

“Carter—General Carter,” Jack amended, “said the shields were designed to protect the jumper against explosions during time travel.”

“Ah, yes,” Vala put in. “But that was only against any explosion resulting from our arrival in a spatial-temporal coordinate where matter preexisted. And if you'll recall, while the dampeners could definitely do with some tweaking, the shields functioned quite adequately when we had that little mix up with An's ship.” She flashed a suitably deferential smile at Loki. “And your ship, too, I imagine. An was on board, wasn't he?”

The Asgard refrained from answering but as much as it was possible to read any Asgard's expression, he seemed to be pro-cessing that information.

Nodding, Sam said, “Okay, that makes sense. The shields were also operational when we jumped to 1908 and hit the Ha'tak. It was the subsequent explosion that must have burned out the relay. There are additional problems, but my biggest concern at the moment is this.” She gestured to the time machine.

Jack tapped it. “A little on the crispy side. How soon before you can fix it?”

“Sir, I don't think I can, not without replacement parts unavailable in this era.” Sam crouched and opened a panel in the side. “They've only just started using vacuum tubes in 1908. Actually, it was Lee De Forest who—”At Jack's cleared throat, she abandoned the explanation and stood. “I think I can get the drive system operational so we can fly the jumper somewhere safer, but assuming Kvasir installed the Asgard equipment—”

“Nope. You did.”

“You are the pilot of this Ancient ship?” Loki's eyes zeroed in on Sam.

Responding automatically, Sam shook her head. “No, that would be General O'Neill. Sir, can you try turning on the cloak?”

Until that moment, Daniel would have said it was impossible for an Asgard's eyes to turn beady, but that's exactly what Loki's now did as he thoughtfully redirected his gaze to Jack. “Then you carry the same genetic code as the Ancients.”

“Don't even think about it,” Jack warned, heading for the pilot's seat.

Wincing at her slip, Sam exchanged a look with Daniel. “Sorry, sir.”

“Vala,” Jack called over his shoulder, “can that thing on your hand rearrange an Asgard's memory? Preferably into something that looks like the scrambled eggs they serve in the Commissary?”

“I'd be more than happy to give it a try, General,” Vala volunteered cheerfully.

“In which case,” Loki informed them with a petulant scowl, “I will be unable to repair this temporal device in order for you to return me to my time and my ship.”

Daniel half expected him to cross his arms or stamp his little gray foot, but instead, without any further invitation, Loki opened the blackened panel of the time machine and peered inside.

Pulling a mud-coated flashlight from his pocket, Daniel switched it on and held it out to Loki, hoping it might serve as something of a peace offering. “Here.”

“That is insulting,” the Asgard replied.

“It's the eyes,” Sam mouthed to Daniel over his head.

From the cockpit, Jack announced, “I got nothing.”

“Damn.” Sam shook her head. “I was afraid of that.” Before Daniel could ask her to elaborate, she turned to Loki. “You know about the destruction of the Ha'tak over Tunguska, don't you?”

Loki limped past Daniel to the cockpit and opened a panel in the Asgard transport. “One of our scout ships detected an anomalous temporal distortion field inside the lead Ha'tak. The damaged ship exploded moments before impacting with Earth. Believing they were under attack, the remainder of the Goa'uld fleet left. The power supply module is damaged.” He looked up at Sam. “You should have allowed Kvasir to install this device. In your ignorance, several critical errors have been made. However, I can modify some existing components to effect temporary repairs to the temporal device.”

“Really?” Sam went forward and peered inside. “Are you certain?”

Loki looked up and blinked at her.

“Sorry, silly question.”

“As my ship was not destroyed, why did you bring me aboard yours?”

“To save your life, of course,” Vala told him, before anybody else could offer an explanation. “I mean, you were critically injured and we couldn't just leave you there now, could \ we?”

Daniel was seriously beginning to question how she'd ever made it as a con artist because her lies were so amazingly transparent. Loki, however, didn't seem to notice.

Pointing inside the machine, Vala added, “Why don't you try—”

“Given the physical damage to my body, my ship's automated medical systems -would have transferred my consciousness to a clone.” Loki evidently didn't care much for any explanation offered by the inferior beings who'd captured him. Limping back to the cargo bay, he pointed to the open control panel with leads still attached to Sam's laptop. “I will require those crystals.”

“Or,” Vala said, “you could try—”

Sam shook her head. “We'll need those to fly the jumper. We can't risk using the time machine on the ground.”

“This temporal device is configured to be utilized only with this ship, therefore your statement is redundant. However, other crystals could be used as a temporary measure to relay power to the drive pods. If you could find them.”

An enthusiastic voice piped up from the shadows. “There's a fine collection of crystals on display at the university museum.”

Daniel had almost forgotten this entire exchange was being witnessed—more likely being burned into the imagination of—H.P. Lovecraft. “You mean Brown University?”

“Why, yes. You've heard of it? Even in the future?”

“I never mentioned we were from the future,” Daniel said.

The kid smiled. “But you speak of a temporal device that is broken, Mr. Jackson. Your little gray friend here might be from Planet X, but, since you were uncertain this was 1908, I suspect you and your companions are from the distant future.”

Jack glanced over his shoulder at the lad and then shrugged. “Smart kid.”

“Did you want me to take you to the university? It's only a few blocks from here.”

“Okay, well—” Daniel patted Howard on the shoulder— “we'll keep it in mind, but these crystals we need aren't the sort of crystals you're talking about.”

“Still, they might have—”

“What we need is a tetravalent metalloid,” Sam said, cutting off Vala. “And a large piece of—”

“Silicon!” Howard declared. When Sam stared at him in surprise, he added with a self-deprecating smile, “I... I'm really rather good at chemistry, ma'am. By the sound of it, to repair your time machine, you'll need something that has chemical properties between those of metals and nonmetals—”

“To act as a temporary bridge.” Sam's eyes lit up with the possibilities, while Jack's began glazing over. “The purer the better. It would probably only last a few minutes, but if we had something like quartz, or better, a biogenic silica—”

“Biogenic silica? Then that's easy! We have biogenic silicas here on Earth. The most common is called opal.”

Sam was trying not to smile. “Opal?”

“Who'd have thought?” Jack said, shaking his head. He turned to Sam. “You see, he has a four letter word for it. Why can't you use more four letter words, Carter?”

Sam muttered something that sounded like, “muon”, but Jack chose not to hear.

Howard seemed quite excited by the fact that he was actually helping this sorry-looking bunch of stranded time travelers and their passenger from Planet X. “There are opal bearing rocks in the university's gem collection.”

Loki pulled flat crystal from the guts of the time machine and stared at it. “I believe something of that nature would be suitable for the drive system.”

Vala tapped the time machine. “Y'know what might work better—”

Ignoring her, Jack addressed their visitor. “Kid, are you saying you know where you can get your hands on this stuff?”

Daniel had the distinct impression smiles hadn't come readily to Howard in recent times, but right now, the lad was positively beaming. Taking a tentative step closer to peer at Sam's computer, his eyes almost as large as the Asgard's, he said, “I can show you the building, but it's locked and guarded, I'm afraid. It's quite a valuable collection, you know.”

Before Vala could so much as utter a sound, Daniel raised a warning finger. “Ah!”

“Never crossed my mind,” she declared, with a wounded look. “But since nobody here seems to be willing to tap into my vast knowledge of this ship's systems, you might as well take me along.” Crossing her arms she sent him a challenging look. “After all, this is the one area of my expertise you're willing to trust, isn't it?”

Giving Vala permission to burgle anything was a bad idea. Daniel knew it was a bad idea but— “She probably has a point, Jack.”

“You sure you're up to this, Vala?” Sam said. “You were passed out, not so long ago.”

Daniel frowned, just a little bit guilty for not remembering that himself, but the truth was, Vala had a knack for self-preservation, and right now, she probably was in better shape than any of them. Certainly she wasn't suffering the after affects of those damned golf balls from Bayou.

“Right!” Vala rubbed her hands together in anticipation. “Who's coming with me?”

“Sir?” Sam turned to Jack. “I'll need you to power up the systems as we check each one.” To Daniel, she added, “We could also do with some clamps, nickel wire and as many nickel-cadmium batteries as you can find.”

“Ni-cads?” Daniel almost laughed. While he had a lot of faith in Sam, he really couldn't see her powering up the jumper, the transport or the time machine with flashlight batteries. “Sam, this is 1908.”

“There's a tool shed in the stables behind the geochemistry building,” Howard said. “They'll probably have clamps and nickel wire there. Such batteries, however, are stored in the laboratory.”

“You have nickel-cadmium batteries?” That just didn't seem right.

“Why, yes,” Howard replied, sounding as if it had fallen to him to alone to protect Earth's galactic reputation as a technological powerhouse. “They're not commonly used, of course, but the geochem lab has a supply of them. This is the twentieth century, you know.”

“Fine.” Jack stood, biting back a smile at Howard's indignant reply. “Carter, make a list.”

“Area's clear, sir,” Mitchell announced from the bottom of the ramp. “List?”

Behind him stood Teal'c, holding onto what was presumably Howard's bicycle.

“You, Vala and Daniel are off to do some grocery shopping,” Jack informed him.

“Of the 'five finger discount' variety,” Vala added, wiggling her fingers with a grin.

Loki turned to face Mitchell. “I will require food.”

Nobody bothered to answer him. Vala fixed her attention on Daniel and Mitchell, shaking her head as she studied the sorry state of their BDUs. “If we are going to venture out into the big wide world, boys, we'll need to do something about you two.”

“Like what,” Daniel asked, instantly suspicious.

“Daniel, darling, while / might find the blood and cuts on your naked, yet manly buttocks, incredibly sexy, it might be a bit off-putting to the locals.” Vala was pointedly staring at his hips, which, he had to admit, didn't have a whole lot of material left covering them thanks to the dartballs. Mitchell wasn't in much better shape, either.

Eyeing the raw flesh where a couple of chunks had been taken out of Mitchell's nose and cheek, Daniel added, “Maybe a Band-Aid, too.”

“Ah, now I can take care of that.” Vala flashed another grin and held up the hand device. “You see? I really do have my uses.”

“What about local clothes?” Mitchell asked.

“You might be able to...steal...” Howard suggested, almost choking on the word, “something suitable on the way.”

“That's settled, then,” Vala said. “I fix you up. Howard fixes us up. We fix the ship up, and we all go home. Piece of bread.”

“Piece of cake,” Daniel corrected, with the certain feeling that nothing was ever that simple, particularly not when both time travel and Vala were involved. “The saying is piece of cake.”

CHAPTER TEN

The clop of hooves on the cobblestones was slow and the axles of the cart creaked with the weight of something bulky that Vala couldn't see in the dark. Mitchell signaled for them to stay in the shadows, but the creature must have sensed their presence, or, more likely, smelled them. The animal—a beast of burden called a horse that Vala had only ever seen before on television—snickered and tossed its head, pulling at the harness used to control its movements. At the horse's unexpected skittishness, the man holding the straps let out a string of epithets, a few of which were new to Vala, that she filed away for future reference.

Howard had stopped a few moments earlier outside one of the many cramped two-storey buildings lining the street. When asked why, the youth had explained this was his current residence. He wanted to take a few moments to leave his bicycle inside, and perhaps find something to disguise their “alien attire” for when they were forced to leave the shadows to cross the occasional road. Realizing Howard's concern for his bicycle was because it was an item of some worth, Vala had eyed it speculatively, but before she could inquire about its value...on the black market, say, as an antique item from Earth...he'd disappeared inside the residence.

Learning what various societies considered valuable—not to mention who did the ruling and who did the serving on the worlds she visited—was a survival instinct for Vala. On the way through the woods, she'd picked up a few more interesting scraps from Howard's whispered conversation with Daniel. Apparently—from what Vala could glean—the recent death of Howard's grandfather had forced him and his mother to abandon their luxurious home a short distance away, and move into this considerably more humble abode closer to the docks. Young Howard was feeling the reduction in his circumstances keenly. So keenly, in fact, that when added to his struggle with some additional —and as yet to be articulated—inner turmoil, it was enough to bring him down to the river this night, intent on ending it all.

On a universal scale of things, downgrading one's accommodation seemed a trifling setback. Certainly too insignificant to be considering suicide over it. Clearly, Howard was suffering from an interesting collection of much more significant—if somewhat immature—neuroses.

Rather like Rodney McKay, actually.

By the time the horse-drawn cart passed, Howard had returned, clutching a bundle of clothes.

“This was all I could find,” he whispered apologetically, handing Vala a long coat and a gray bonnet. She took the items and examined them curiously as he held out the other garments to Daniel and Mitchell. One was a heavy, masculine-looking coat. The other was a much daintier, with velveteen lapels and matching floral bonnet. “They belong to my mother and my aunt, so we'll have to make sure they're returned in good order, or I'll never be able to explain—”

“Thanks.” Before Howard could finish his explanation, Mitchell had snatched the heavier coat from his outstretched arm and pulled it over his BDUs, leaving Daniel with the ladies' coat and the bonnet.

Vala smiled at him, and she tied on her own bonnet. “Look, Daniel! How nice. You and I have matching ribbons!”

Daniel didn't appear terribly impressed by the notion. “That's because these are women's clothes. And you've got that bonnet on backwards, by the way.”

Vala frowned and repositioned the hat, not convinced that there was a noticeable difference. Daniel turned to Mitchell and treated him to a look that spoke volumes.

“You're shorter than me,” Mitchell told Daniel with a grin that seemed out of all proportion to the occasion.

“By an inch.”

“What can I say, Jackson. Size matters.”

Daniel stretched the coat over his shoulders with a scowl. “I'll remember this.”

“So will I.” Still grinning like he'd won something, Mitchell turned to Vala and Howard. “Let's get a move on, people. We've only got a few more hours of darkness left.”

Daniel looked particularly fetching in his floral bonnet, Vala thought, but her attempts to assure him of the fact were met with a choked laugh from Mitchell and a decidedly frosty glare from Daniel.

Disguised in their new coats, they hurried along the sidewalk, grateful for the darkened streetlamps. Powered by electricity—they'd at least discovered how to generate it by burning coal in this time—the lamps were switched off at midnight, according to Howard. The only artificial light remaining filtered through the windows of the occasional home where someone was still up at this late hour, providing a rare square of illumination along the sidewalk.

Like the rather boxy vehicles Cam referred to as Cadillac Osceolas and Model Ds, everything about the place reeked of primitivism. Earth 1908 was a world still taking baby steps into the greater universe. And yet, Vala reminded herself, while the people of this era had only recently mastered electricity and flight, within a century they would be traversing galaxies, and, armed with little more than ignorance and blind optimism, they would destroy a parasitic race that had enslaved humans for ten millennia.

How'd they managed that, Vala still found difficult to comprehend, particularly after her one—and thankfully, only — excursion to Washington DC.

On the other hand, it was this inexplicably successful combination of naivety and resourcefulness in the Tau'ri that had attracted her to Daniel in the first place.

Of course, one could argue that like the Goa'uld, humans had simply exploited Ancient technology in order to further their own agenda. But the Goa'uld had never invented any technology, merely stole and used it. They shunned innovation—something at which humans excelled. This excursion through the streets of Rhode Island was a case in point. No Goa'uld would ever have considered using a gem-bearing rock as a temporary replacement in the power relay systems of one of its ships.

Not that Vala's idea—the one they never gave her a chance to articulate—wouldn't have been better, but the point was, in this situation, the Goa'uld would have come barging in, conquered the planet and enslaved the population. Then they'd have made free thinking and innovation punishable by death and ordered a new ship constructed—preferably a fleet—in the identical manner to which all such ships had been built since as far back as Qetesh's memories reached.

“Wait up,” Mitchell whispered, raising his fist in the air.

Grateful for the chance to rest, Vala stifled a yawn as a second cart, drawn by a team of somewhat livelier horses, approached along a side street. Not that she would ever admit it, but healing O'Neill and Loki's quite serious injuries and then the others' more superficial wounds had taken more out of her than usual. Loss of blood certainly had contributed to her passing out, prefaced by that short, sharp trip down memory lane to a place she had absolutely no desire to revisit. Vala's memories—her real memories—had long since been submerged by those of countless other lifetimes. It didn't matter that she hadn't actually experienced every one of those events personally.

They felt real, no matter how she had come by them.

When the Tokra had nursed her back to health to assuage his guilt after removing Qetesh, he'd counseled her to claim only the memories she considered truly her own, and retain any others as a source of information. Sound advice, perhaps, but the well-intentioned Tokra had not considered Athena's insistence of dredging up the past. Nor had he been able to explain how to extricate aspects of her personality now welded to that of Qetesh.

One thing Vala did remember with painful clarity was being born into a society where chastity was a virtue prized above all others. Her possession by Qetesh had been a particularly exquisite form of torture, and even now, Vala wasn't sure that evil Goa'uld bitch hadn't chosen her for precisely that reason. Qetesh had not set herself up as the goddess of fertility or love or even happiness, leaving that to her sisters, Amaunet and Hathor. Qetesh was—unashamedly—the Goddess of Sex and, unlike most Goa'uld, had chosen not to entirely suppress her host's consciousness.

Worse, than that, she had delighted in traumatizing Vala with her perverse desires.

Time and the burning determination to retain her sanity had desensitized Vala to Qetesh's bizarre tastes, but the horror and repugnance of those first encounters lingered, catching her off-guard at times.

Still, Vala was, above all, a survivor. She had found a way to deal with Qetesh's appetites, just as she learned how easily Qetesh used those appetites to acquire whatever she desired. The Tokra may have untangled their minds, but disentangling those impulses had proven difficult. Some things simply cannot be unlearned.

Vala shook her head to clear her mind. Now was not the time to start reminiscing about the good old days when she was ruling half a galaxy and having intimate relationships with the other half. A wagon slowed to round the corner in the direction they were traveling. As with the first cart, it was heavily laden, but there seemed to be sufficient room at the back for the four of them to hitch a ride without being seen.

Almost without thinking, she chased after the wagon and leaped aboard. Employing this sort of ad hoc transport came with certain risks, such as landing on a load of animal dung or someone's squishy market vegetables. But for once they'd gotten lucky. This cart was carrying bales of soft fleece.

Mitchell and Daniel were right behind her, while Howard, slower and noisier, had to be helped aboard. Fortunately the owner of the cart didn't seem to notice the racket above the clop of hooves, grinding axles and rumble of wooden wheels over the cobbles.

“Ten blocks,” Daniel whispered in her ear, which was both informative and a rather pleasant sensation. She should make Daniel whisper vital information into her ear more often.

The rest of the journey was slow—it was debatable if they'd gained much time hitching a ride, although it felt good to rest her aching leg—but as they neared the university, even in the dark it was clear the dwellings were larger and set further back from the road. Following Mitchell's lead, Daniel pulled some of the pale wooly fur from an open bale and used it to wipe the bloodstains off his neck and hands.

It had taken little effort to heal her teammate's superficial cuts. Likewise, O'Neill's head wound was fully healed, but Loki had been an entirely different matter again. There was something profoundly wrong with the Asgard, something she could not fully discern, and although she had sealed his burns and knitted his broken bones, Vala suspected he was in dire need of a new body—which would explain why he was so eager to get the time machine operational.

While Vala's only wound had been her leg, the blood from that was now covered by the long coat she wore. Instead, she ran the greasy fleece over her hands. Experience had taught her that smelling like a domesticated animal was a useful accessory in one's nighttime camouflage kit.

An excited hand signal from Howard confirmed they were nearing their destination. Mitchell signaled with his fist and pointed to the shadows and the others nodded silently in understanding. Jumping off the back of borrowed transport was more or less second nature to her, but Howard landed face down in a mud-filled wheel-rut. Helping the youth to his feet,  Daniel whispered, “Which way?”

Howard gestured with a decidedly unsteady hand. “Two... two hundred yards, across the park.”

They took off, jogging in that direction. “What about the other stuff that Sam needs?” Vala asked, looking over her shoulder to Howard, who was trying to wipe himself down as he ran. “Where do we get that?”

“Oh...clamps and the like. Urn...the workshop and stables are behind the geochem building.”

They reached an ironwork gate, a rusted and ineffective hindrance easily circumvented by climbing over a short hedge. “How much time do we have?” Daniel directed his question at Howard.

“Time...time...” Howard echoed between puffs, tugging at a small golden chain draped across his vest. Easing closer to a miserly pool of light from a ground floor window, he withdrew a pendant, flipped open the lid, and squinting at the tiny clock inside, said, “It's almost 3:00am.”

“Sunrise this time of year on the east coast is around 0415,” Mitchell informed them. “We'll have to split up if we're gonna find what we need and get the jumper out of here before anyone sees us.”

Ahead of them was a boxy looking three-storey stone building with rows upon rows of arched windows. Mitchell signaled them to stop behind a short, neatly clipped hedge paralleling the pathway. “That the geochem lab?”

“Yes.” Squatting beside them, panting heavily from their jog across the park, Howard pointed to what looked—in the darkness—to be an open wooden building just beyond. “Those are the stables and coach house.”

“Okay, Jackson, you go with Vala to get the opal, I'll take the workshop.”

“There's about ten things on your list,” Vala countered, readjusting her com unit so it wasn't gouging her cheek. “We only need one lump of biogenic silica.”

“She's got a point. Jackson, you and I will take the workshop, Vala gets the opal.” Tapping his com unit, Mitchell added, “No chatter unless it's absolutely essential.”

“Just don't take anything other than the opal rock,” Daniel warned Vala. “I mean it.”

“Right.” She nodded. “No precious jewels and other bits of treasure. Just a shiny rock which is on display...where?”

“I'll take you,” Howard offered, his wheezing now under control. Mostly.

Like Daniel, Mitchell's eyes were constantly taking in their surroundings as he spoke. “I thought we'd agreed you'd just, point out which buildings?”

“Oh, don't be such a spoilsport,” Vala admonished. “Howard's having the time of his life, aren't you, Howard? Besides, we'll be in and out before the guards even begin to wake up.” She lifted her zat and smiled.

With a sharp intake of breath, Howard squeaked, “You're not going to.. .to kill anyone, are you?”

Daniel clapped him on the shoulder and offered him a reassuring smile. “It's not a gun...well, it is a gun, but... It's a ray gun,” he said. “It just knocks people out. Like an electric shock. It's not fatal; you only pass out for a few minutes. We're not going to kill anyone, I promise. Right?” Daniel, displaying a distinct lack of trust, directed the last comment at her.

Vala sniffed, offended by the very notion she would mess with the timeline, or shoot anyone—unless she absolutely had to. Or there was a profit in it for her.

Okay, not that—she really had to stop thinking such larcenous thoughts. Smiling, she nodded and said, “Cross my heart.”

Daniel looked doubtful, but they were running out of time. At a signal from Mitchell, the men waited only long enough to establish there was no movement around the buildings, before vanishing into the nearby shadows. Vala took an additional few moments to work her way around in the other direction toward what Howard assured her was the rear entrance.

She froze when she smelled something unique to this world: burning tobacco plant. Then she saw it; a tiny cinder glow ', in the darkness that grew momentarily bright before fading and dropping to the level of a man's thigh. Although she was tempted to zat the guard, the soft thwang and brief plasma glow would not go unnoticed. She'd seen sufficient people on this world engaged in the addictive behavior of smoking to know that the man probably would move on in a few-moments.

Beside her, Howard's breathing was stilted and overly loud. Vala reached for his hand and patted it gently, calming him, a little tempted to make some remark about amateurs, and then deciding against it, because he was only a boy, after all, and one suffering an excessive degree of anxiety. Nothing would be served here by her being mean spirited.

The glow faded and then fell to the ground. A gritty sound followed, then, finished with his cigarette, the guard moved off. Vala signaled for Howard to wait in the shadow of a low hedge while she ran in a crouch across the grass and up the path to an ill-lit door set back between a pair of fluted concrete pillars.

While her preferred method of dealing with locks generally worked quite well, the primitive mechanisms found on this world had proven slightly more challenging than expected. Admittedly, she'd never had any real trouble getting into the various offices around the SGC, having had plenty of practice on Daniel's door, filing cabinet, desk and that secret little cache of interesting keepsakes he thought no one else knew about. But the small toolkit she'd liberated from Colonel Carter's laboratory before they'd left the SGC proved rather useful, which meant she didn't have to feel guilty about borrowing it in the first place. She had the door open in less than ten seconds.

Howard came running in behind her, panting and mumbling something about the guards. Closing the door, Vala peered into the musty darkness. “Where now?”

“I can't believe I'm doing this.” He was pale and trembling with a mixture of fear and excitement.

“Take a deep breath. Where do we go from here?”

“Up...upstairs.”

The creaking wooden steps were not softened by carpet, and Howard's attempt at tiptoeing was painfully loud to Vala's ears. The stairs led them to a landing directly beneath the window over the entrance, and then turned in the opposite direction to the second floor. Under the window was an ugly wooden cabinet with a glass lid. The beam from her flashlight fractured into several colors when she passed it across the rocks inside.

“Bowenite and Cumberlanite,” Howard said, coining up behind her. “They come from this area. The opal bearing rocks are on the next floor.”

They were halfway up the flight to the third level when she heard what sounded like a gunshot outside, followed immediately by yelling. Then came shouts of, “Fire!” and a series of high-pitched whistles.

“Daniel!” she barked into her com unit. “I heard shots. What's going on?”

Howard gasped loudly, tripped, and fell heavily against her. “What's happening? What do we do?”

Rather than Daniel, O'Neill responded through her com, “What's the problem?”

Ignoring them both, Vala bolted up the remainder of the steps. It was unlikely anyone had noticed their entry, so she could only assume Daniel or Mitchell had managed to get themselves noticed, and that right now they were too busy to reply. Waving her flashlight around the room, she saw twenty or thirty glass-topped wooden display cases. Although fairly certain she knew what to look for, it could still take several minutes of searching. “Howard!” She ran back down the first few steps, grabbed his shoulder and hauled him up. “Where is it?”

Stumbling against the banister, he stuttered over his words. “We... we have to flee! If we're caught here—”

The whistle blowing and cries from outside increased in volume, directly in proportion to a distinctive amber hue. Whatever had caught fire wasn't wasting any time about it. Despite that, given she was standing within a few feet of it, she saw absolutely no point leaving without getting what they'd come for. “Plenty of time for getting away. Now concentrate, Howard. Tell me where to find the opal rock.”

“I think... I...um...yes, it's the case over beneath that window.” He pointed nervously toward the far side of the room, and, grasping the wall to steady himself, inadvertently brushed against an electric switch.

The entire floor was abruptly bathed in light.

“Howard!” she hissed, spinning around. “Are you trying to get us caught?”

“No...no... I...!” He fumbled around with the switch, his expression so agonized in the glare of the lights, that she abandoned a momentary desire to throttle him. Besides, there was no time. The view through the windows was very unsettling. The coach house and stables must have been made of tinder because the fire was devouring them. Worse, the intense heat was carrying cinders upward where a light wind had caught them and tossed them toward the geomchem building.

“Daniel? Mitchell? If that fire is some sort of diversionary tactic let me tell you, it's a little over the top.”

“What fire?” O'Neill demanded through her radio.

“Mitchell's down!” Voice strained as though he were carrying a heavy weight, Daniel added, “Knocked a lantern into the straw.” His transmission ended abruptly, followed by the sound from outside the building of more gunfire.

Vala ran past the rows of display tables and, foregoing any kind of finesse, used the butt end of her zat gun to smash the glass of the cabinet, which instantly set off an excruciatingly loud ringing—either that, or the alarm had been triggered because the building had caught fire. The light from the blaze outside danced across the gems in the cabinet, bringing the fragmented rainbow colors to life. Most of the rocks on display with the opals were chunky, but she spotted a slab piece about the size of her hand and the thickness of her little finger. Careless of the shattered glass, she snatched up the rock and glanced out the window. Not good. While a half dozen people who had responded to the fire were pulling carriages and horses away, several more had redirected their attention to the geochem building. Worse, a large tree just outside the window was well and truly ablaze.

“Got the rock,” she announced through her com to O'Neill and Daniel. “Where are you?”

“Trying to get us both out of here!” Daniel barked.

“Howard!” Vala yelled, spinning around. The alarm seemed designed purely to deafen intruders rather than alert the guards or officials or whoever it was now headed for them. A coppery glow on the wall by the ceiling caught her attention: two hemispherical bells were mercilessly beating her eardrums into submission. A shot from the zat killed them and simultaneously extracted a terrified yelp from Howard, who had wedged himself behind a tall bookshelf. “C'mon!” she ordered, grabbing him by the arm and yanking him to his feet.

He stumbled, thrust out a hand to balance himself...and pushed the bookshelf off-balance. Vala kept running—until the sound of glass smashing drew her attention. Several windows had fallen victim to Howard's panic-driven clumsiness, and hundreds of glowing cinders rode in on a wave of heat.

So much for Carter's optimistic and impractical notions of non-intervention in the timeline.

They reached the stairwell and were halfway to the landing when the clump of heavy boots alerted her to the arrival of two burly figures, who, upon seeing them, began blowing more of those ear-splitting whistles. Zatting them too soon, however, had the unfortunate effect of blocking what appeared to be the only way out—which was rapidly filling up with even more people shouting something about thieves using the fire as a diversion.

“Not my idea, I can assure you,” she muttered to herself as she bolted back up the stairs.

There had to be another stairway, otherwise how had the owners of this place managed to drag all these hideous display cabinets up here? Turning back the way she'd come she was surprised to find no sign of Howard, so she ducked low between two wood and glass display cases filled with more rocks, and ran along a hallway to the opposite side of the building, away from the fire.

Stopping at the window at the end of the hall lined with hundreds of books, she glanced down. It certainly wouldn't be the first time her life had depended on jumping from this height—except those higher places hadn't had bars across their windows. And these weren't flimsy decorative things but thick iron posts welded into the surrounding framework.

She cursed the bars roundly for a moment, even using a few of the new words she'd picked up earlier, and then keyed her com unit. “This is not looking good, Daniel. Where are you?”

Back in the direction from which she had come, people were stomping around and bellowing things that did not bode well for her future. She glanced outside again to see several men in uniforms dismount from horses and run between the buildings. The pale haired animals tossed their heads back and shied away from the blazing light.

And then two figures, one being carried across the back of the second, stumbled around the corner of the next building.

“Daniel, I'm right above you!”

He paused, and although she couldn't see his face in the shadow of the building, was certain that he looked up. “Vala!” he yelled not bothering with the com. He lowered Mitchell to the ground. “Get down here. Now!”

The way Mitchell slumped, she was very glad she'd thought to bring the hand device. The only problem was actually get-ting down there.

“You! Stop or we'll shoot!”

Crouching and simultaneously spinning around, Vala fired the zat'nik'katel at the shadowy figures. Their cries had already alerted others, who, mistaking her weapon's discharge for flames, yelled, “This side of the building's already ablaze!” Or perhaps they were right and the sparks coming in through the window had taken hold of the rows of books. This entire situation really was becoming quite irritating.

“Barricade him inside! Let him burn!” cried someone else.

Let him burn? It seemed preposterous that anyone could mistake her for a man, particularly since she was still wearing a bonnet. A glance outside again revealed that Daniel had managed to secure one of the horses the uniformed men had abandoned in their haste. Sort of. The animal was rearing, trying to pull away. Vala assumed Daniel's intention was to use the creature as a method of escape. It gave her an idea.

Granted, it was not so much a choice but an option that required her to trust her teammates implicitly. And while that wasn't an entirely foreign concept, it was still novel enough to give her pause...

But not for long because the voices of the men pursuing her were getting closer. Forcing the window up, she shoved her arm through the bars. “Daniel!”

She wasn't certain if he'd heard her, but the beast certainly heard the thunk when the opal rock she'd tossed through the window hit the gravel in front of it, because it shied and danced away—directly into Mitchell.

Colonel Mitchell's failure to notice he'd been trampled when the hooves came down on him, sent Vala rigid with shock. Mitchell was either already dead, or close to it. She had to get down there. “Daniel! Get back to the jumper and beam us out. I'll take care of Mi—”

Something thick and stinking of onion and cabbage wrapped around her neck with enough force to jerk her off her feet. Elbowing her assailant in the kidney, she simultaneously planted her right foot behind his ankle, bent her knees and leaned forward. Her attacker's momentum carried him over her shoulder and into the barred window, ripping off her bonnet and headset and, by the feel of it, her ears, as he went.

Winded but unfortunately not unconscious, the man managed to grapple her ankle while she was feeling around for her com unit. A boot heel into his face put paid to that notion, but by the sound of things, several more of his friends were on the way.

A last quick check outside confirmed that Daniel had snatched up the opal rock and shoved it inside his vest. He'd shed his coat and bonnet, too, which Vala thought was a pity. In a display of agility that might in other circumstances have left her feeling rather tingly, he leaped onto the animal's back. The horse promptly took off, barely avoiding a team of larger and shaggier relatives pulling a cart with a gigantic smoking metallic urn on top.

Even with Daniel safely away it would be some time before the jumper was airborne and capable of beaming them aboard. Mitchell could quite easily be dead by then. Behind her she heard shouting and glass smashing. Her would-be pursuers were helping themselves to a few gems before the fire really did take hold. Nothing much she could do about Howard since he'd decided to make himself invisible. She ducked low and left, circling around and back toward the stairwell—which was now blocked by a burning beam. Flames had taken hold of the banister, and a set of thin drapes over one window vanished in a brief, illuminating conflagration in which she caught a glimpse of figures in the stairwell dragging out the men she'd zatted earlier.

There had to be another way out of this place.

The sound of someone puking came from behind her.

“Howard?” She turned and squatted down to see the shaking youth, tears streaming down his reddened face, trying to curl up beneath a display cabinet. Neuroses were one thing but this boy's trauma was so crippling that it was going to kill him. Somewhere nearby, glass popped and shattered in the heat, and a roar of greenish flames erupted. Chemicals in a storage cupboard, no doubt, or perhaps some crystals on this odd little planet were actually flammable.

“I'm going to regret this, I know.” She dropped to her hands and knees and crawling to him, yelled, “Howard, listen to me. We have to get out of here before we both end up toast. And I can assure you; being burned to death is not nice. I know, it's already happened to me once. Well, actually, twice, but that's another story.”

He stared at her, uncomprehending and seemingly incapable of movement. “How...how?”

“Help me out of here and I'll tell you all about it. Promise!” A burning beam crashed down beside her. God—any god that cares to listen, really, because at this point I'm prepare to consider all options—please don't let me to die like this again.

Wiping his nose on his sleeve, Howard clambered out from beneath the cabinet—only to let out a terrified yelp as more glass shattered, spraying both of them with fine slivers. The heat was becoming intolerable, and the acrid smoke was choking. “Did you know I was once possessed by a god?” she yelled above the noise. “Well, she thought of herself as a god, it's a long story. But we really must leave before we both die, otherwise you'll never get to hear it, okay?”

Howard finally seemed to come to his senses, because he took off back the way she had come, but instead of turning left, he headed right along a corridor that opened to—

“Oh. This really is bad.” The wide, winding staircase was already ablaze. Just as she was deciding that perhaps getting a little crisped on the way down was far better than getting a lot crisped by staying put, the floor collapsed beneath them.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Daniel could swear in twenty-seven Earth and several alien languages, but all he could say as he snatched up the opal rock and leaped onto the back of the horse, was, “Stupid, stupid, stupid!”

Although the horse took off in the right direction, Daniel barely managed to hang on when the animal almost collided with a team of Clydesdales pulling a steam fire engine. He shortened the reins and brought the horse's head down. The terrified animal pulled up short but continued to dance around for several seconds, confused by people dressed in night-clothes rushing past them with pots in hand to join a rapidly growing bucket line. Finally, Daniel managed to gain some control by directing the animal away from the clanging bells, shouts, heat and roar of the out-of-control blaze.

“Daniel! What the hell's going on?” Jack demanded through his earpiece. “Sounds like you've started a world war from down here.”

It'd been a while since Daniel had ridden, but his mount needed no urging to maintain a hard canter across the park, taking the low hedge in a fluid jump. “Forget the time machine,” he yelled into his com. “I'm on my way back. We have to beam Vala and Mitchell aboard.”

“You left them behind?”

Despite the background noise, the incredulity in Jack's voice was unmistakable, which just added to Daniel's own frustrated anger and despair. Of all the stupid things to have happened.

After locating several clamps in the coach house, Mitchell had suggested trying the tack room for the other things on Sam's list. Daniel had caught a powerful whiff of sour whisky and vomit at almost the same moment as he'd heard a deafening gunshot and felt Mitchell slam into him. They'd literally walked into a guard coming around the corner. Daniel had instantly retaliated, but the shot from his zat had knocked the lantern from the guy's hand and onto a bale of hay. The flames had taken hold even before Daniel had disentangled himself from Mitchell. Then things had gone nuts with panicked horses and people running everywhere.

Daniel's first instinct had been to get Mitchell back to the jumper, but the bullet must have done some major damage because he'd been bleeding copiously from the abdomen. Just carrying him a hundred feet away from the flames to the rear of the geochem building had been enough to bathe them both in blood. Maybe if he could have transported Mitchell directly onto an operating table, Lam might have been able to save him, but right then the Colonel's only hope was Vala and her hand device.

Reaching the Angell Street intersection, Daniel pulled back on the reins, finally urging the horse to slow. “Jack, listen to me! I've got the clamps and opal rock. Tell Sam to forget the time machine for the moment and concentrate on getting the transport operational. Mitchell's seriously wounded and God knows what state Vala is in.”

A glance over his shoulder confirmed what he'd dreaded. The coach house had been all but consumed and the surrounding wooden structures were now well ablaze. Flames had also taken hold of the geochem building. He was about to turn away when something—chemicals kept down in the labs most likely—blew out the bottom right section of the building in a crazed, multi-colored pyrotechnic display. The roof immediately sagged, sending a shower of sparks into the air.

Stomach in knots, every instinct urging him to go back for his teammates, Daniel forced himself to turn away. He allowed the animal its head, and it galloped down Angell Street.

When he'd grabbed the horse, he'd had it in mind that Mitchell or Vala—or both—would need it once she'd patched up Mitchell enough to be moved. The barred window, the opal rock on the ground, and Vala's interrupted transmission had resulted in a split second decision that tasted like crap but offered them the only possible way out.

It hadn't surprised him that Vala had come to the same conclusion half a second ahead of him, but what had surprised him was the fact that she'd unhesitatingly acted on that realization by tossing out the rock. He couldn't blame her for spooking the already terrified horse, which, he now realized from the markings on the tack, belonged to a policeman.

Jack had thankfully given up pestering him for details. The horse slowed to a loping canter, the clops sounding overly loud on the cobblestone road. Before Daniel could urge it to increase its pace, though, it fell back into a broken, jarring trot that drew attention to the wound in Daniel's right thigh. A glance at the tear and a darker damp path surrounding it told him how lucky he'd been. The bullet that had gone through Mitchell must have nicked him in the fleshy part of his inner thigh, missing his scrotum by a hair's breadth. Lifting himself in the saddle, he checked the wound and dismissed it as minor.

He almost laughed at that. Twelve years ago he would have been hollering his lungs out that he'd been shot. Now, it was a minor inconvenience. He was also aware of people running up the street toward the fire. Not ambulance chasers, but local residents carrying buckets and blankets, going to aid the firemen who, by the increasing intensity of the tawny glow, were going to have a hard time stopping the blaze from spreading.

Crap. He had no idea if there'd been a fire, bad or otherwise, on Rhode Island in 1908, but Lovecraft had never mentioned it in any letter Daniel had read. Then again, Lovecraft had never mentioned the jumper, either, yet after tonight the boy would become a virtual hermit. Obsessed with astronomy, he would also give up publishing his hectographed journals, The Scientific Gazette and The Rhode Island Journal of Astronomy, and instead focus on dark, meandering poetry. It would take five more years before he turned to writing self-absorbed stories about hidden, extra-dimensional horrors until finally churning out first person accounts that bore an uncanny resemblance to actual events—including the existence of a city in Antarctica built by the Ancient 'Elder' gods.

People stared at Daniel as he rode past; woman with children in their arms, clustered at the entrances of their homes. . As soon as the fire was under control the police would begin scouring the city looking for those who had started it, and every one of the folk in this street would remember an oddly dressed rider on a police horse, fleeing from the blaze.

Abandoning Mitchell and Vala.

Daniel's sinuses, which hadn't given him a moment's trouble after successive immersions in a Goa'uld sarcophagus and two post-mortem ascensions, chose now to begin throbbing unmercifully.

By the time he'd reached the outskirts of the park, no amount of urging could push the horse's pace beyond a reluctant trot. Snorting and champing at the frothy bit, the animal refused point blank to carry him along the leafy path into the woods.

“Daniel Jackson!” Teal'c called from the darkness.

Dismounting, Daniel gave the horse a slap on the rump, hoping it might take off and lead pursuers astray. “Thanks, pal.”

His thigh sent a spear of pain through his whole leg as he ran after Teal'c through the gingery hued woods. Fingering the opal rock, he was still second-guessing his decision to leave Mitchell and Vala behind when he caught sight of Jack's thin-lipped expression through the jumper's windscreen.

Sam was waiting for him just inside. Daniel slapped the opal rock into her hand then reached into his vest for the clamps. “You're going to beam them out.”

It was not a question but a statement of inarguable fact.

“Right?” Daniel asked when Sam moved into the cockpit. He noticed her laptop was sitting on the Asgard transport between the front seats. Loki was closing a panel on the time machine in the rear, while Teal'c moved passed Daniel to secure the hatch.

“Sorry, Daniel.” Sam's apology was clipped and sympathetic but she refused to meet his eyes. Instead she reached inside a panel above the copilot's chair.

“What?” he demanded, disbelieving. “The only reason I left them was because—”

“Daniel!” Jack called from the pilot's seat. “The Asgard transport is fried. I'm going to try and land this thing in the university grounds.”

The impact of Daniel's decision to leave his teammates was made worse by the lack of reproach in Jack's words.

“Sir, you can't!” Sam's head jerked around.

“Carter—” His eyes bored into hers with an intensity that was agonizingly familiar. “I told you before. I am not leaving here without Mitchell and Vala.”

Recalling the earlier conversation, the full measure of Daniel's decision hit him.

“Why would we want to avoid the consequences? “

“Because they might not be something you 'd be willing to live with. “

“The cloak uses too much power,” Sam was saying. “I can almost guarantee that it'll bum out this relay—if I can even get it to work. And we can't just land in front of everyone, General. We've already interfered with the timeline too much as it is.”

“Have we?” Daniel made no attempt to hide his desperation. “You can't know that for certain. Sam, everything that's happened occurred because we caused it. Tunguska, Lovecraft's obsession with evil extraterrestrials posing as gods—”

“Corona, New Mexico, 1947,” Jack added. “Northwest of the Roswell Army Air Field.”

“What?” Sam and Daniel demanded simultaneously.

“I didn't mention that?”

“No!” Recalling the damaged Asgard ship, Daniel glanced back at Loki who returned his stare, unblinking. “You mean that's where—when—he came from?”

“According to you,” Jack addressed Sam, who was clamping the opal rock in place, “SG-1 were sent to July 1st, 1947. Something about a rip in some material.”

“Tear in the space-time continuum,” she clarified, but then countered that by adding, “that doesn't makes any sense.”

Jack sniffed. “That's what I said.”

Anguished and in pain, Daniel snapped, “Jack, at the very least can you attempt some clarity by referring to Sam's future self as General Carter?”

Daniel wasn't entirely certain if Sam's hesitation in answering was due to his outburst, Jack's words, or the difficulty she was having with the opal bearing rock, until she said, “Even if removing Loki created a weakness, which under extraordinary circumstances might—and I stress, might—have allowed an unstable wormhole to be directed to that point in space-time, the fact is, according to the log, Loki wasn't taken from 1947 until some minutes after you and Vala arrived and beamed us out.”

For once, Daniel sympathized with Jack. “What does it matter? While we're standing here arguing about it, Mitchell is dying and Vala's...for all I know, she was still inside the building when the roof collapsed. We have to go back for them.” He turned to leave, but a firm hand on his shoulder forestalled him. Teal'c was holding a field dressing and motioning him to sit.

“You took a hit?” Jack's eyes narrowed when his gaze dropped to the wet patch on Daniel's thigh.

“This...discussion is pointless,” declared Loki, coming forward and seating himself in a passenger chair. “Return me to my time and I can effect repairs to this vessel. You will then be able to recover your.. .friends.”

Latching onto that promised solution, Daniel allowed Teal'c to edge him back into the cockpit. “You got the time machine working?” he asked Loki.

“Of course.”

The Asgard's arrogance was not lost on Daniel, nor was his sense of urgency. Daniel doubted that had anything to do with saving Mitchell and Vala. Suspicious of Loki's motives, he was about to say something more when Teal'c ripped away the material of his pants leg. The sharp stab of pain took his breath away, but he brushed off Sam's look of concern with shake of his head. He'd had worse injuries. Hell, he'd died more than once, and neither occasion had been pleasant.

“Maybe working.” Sam ignored Loki's affronted look and added, “And maybe we were responsible for certain historical events. And theoretically, the weakened section of the space-time continuum in 1947 may have been triggered by something other than removing Loki.” She withdrew her arm from the bank of crystals, stood, and checked her laptop. “I'm just not so sure about the impact of all those maybes. We could end up creating a time loop.”

“Carter, for crying out loud, instead of retiring to a nice nursing home you—General you,” Jack amended with an apologetic glance at Daniel, “goes gallivanting around the universe with some old geezer named Herbert! Now something happened in the meantime to change your mind, so can we at least work with that?”

Still looking none too happy, Sam gave a reluctant nod. “On that basis, Loki's right. And it won't matter how long we take to effect repairs once we leave because we can return to 1908 seconds after we leave here.”

“Then in order to recover Colonel Mitchell and Vala quickly, would it not be advisable to depart this time as soon as possible?” Teal'c finished tying off the field dressing on Daniel's leg. “Which would also prevent the discovery of this ship.” He pointed through the windscreen to a bunch of lights headed in their direction then turned back into the cargo section of jumper, presumably to make certain everything was properly stowed this time.

“Sir, you're going to have to be careful not to arrive in 1947 until after we left.” Sam closed the panel and moved into the front seat. “And don't attempt to use any sub-systems or we'll draw too much power. Concentrate instead on the drive pods, inertial dampeners and life support.”

Daniel eased himself into the chair behind Jack. The lights dimmed except for the control panel and a strip along the length of the bulkhead. Other than a few scrapes and bangs from the branches, the jumper lifted smoothly into the air. The inertial dampeners were obviously working okay because the patchwork of city lights fell away at a rate that should have compacted them into the deck like a pancake. Outside, the eastern sky was showing the first purplish traces of dawn.

Sam closed the laptop and secured it in a bag. “To ensure we don't run into any aircraft or high altitude weather balloons in 1947, you shouldn't attempt to use the time machine until we're in orbit.”

“Like we had sooo much luck the last coupla times,” Jack muttered. “Hey, Loki, any of your buddies hanging around the skies over New England?”

“Our ship was the only vessel currently authorized to be in Earth's orbit at that time.”

“Authorized. Right,” Jack mumbled. “That anything like sanctioned?”

As they continued to ascend, a sliver of red-gold across the horizon transformed into a brilliant burst of sunlight. Jack rotated the jumper and headed southwest, while maintaining their rate of climb.

“That should be high enough,” said Sam a short time later. “Now remember, three hundred years back, then—”

Something shifted, a fleeting sense of movement and an odd internal sensation that Daniel could not quite define. Below, the night view of Earth appeared...different. Darker, that was it. “When are we?”

“Thought we could maybe take a few hours off, head due south and watch the Santa Maria sail in,” Jack replied.

Daniel released his breath. For the first time since they'd left for Bayou some twelve hours earlier, he could relax. Whatever was happening in 1908 was now on hold, frozen in time until they could go back for Mitchell and Vala.

Jack's words also triggered something else, a realization that they could indeed travel across time at will to witness firsthand events that had shaped their world. The prospect of substantiating countless theories, and debunking countless more, was intensely seductive.

And yet, one easy to resist, for their brief experiences had shown them that while they could travel at will, it was not with impunity.

“Sir?”

“Don't panic, Carter,” Jack replied. “I just picked a date instead of some random point in time, that's all.”

“I was just going to say that the power readings are fluctuating. We need to make the second jump while we still can.” Shaking her head, she added, “I just wish I'd been able to get the cloak operational.”

Acknowledging her concerns, Daniel said, “Sam, there were so many UFO sightings that week, even if we do contribute to them I doubt it will matter.”

The fleeting, indefinite sensation occurred again. A familiar stream of light encompassed the seat beside Daniel's—and Loki vanished.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Maybe he should just think about retiring, this time for good. He really should have seen this coming—or in the case of Loki, going.

While Jack was certain that his ribs weren't actually busted, he still felt like he'd just gone fifteen rounds with a bad-tempered Jaffa. He shouldn't be complaining, he supposed. If the sticky mass on his scalp was anything to go by, some of his brains had leaked out before Vala had done her thing with the Goa'uld hand device. Of course, being healed by any sort of Goa'uld technology always left a bad taste in his mouth. But beggars really couldn't afford to be choosers. And, truth be told, if he'd been asked to take his pick between living and dying—which he hadn't, because he'd been, well, dying—other than agreeing to have a snake shoved inside of him, it was a fairly safe bet he'd have chosen the former.

“Well that was a shock,” Daniel remarked, staring, like Jack, at the space where Loki had been sitting only a few moments ago.

“Dammit!” Carter yanked out her laptop and reconnected the interface. “Sir, did you—?

“2006, twenty-four hours after we left.”

“Jack?” Daniel said.

“You think for one minute I'd take us to 1947 and let Loki futz around with this ship any more than he has?” Jack said.

“So that little charade about not bumping into anything in the skies of 1947—”

“Was for Loki's benefit,” Carter replied. “He must have over-ridden the thought interface and set it to specific dates.”

“What happened, Carter?” Jack asked, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “How could he just beam out like that?”

Carter winced and shrugged helplessly, which wasn't something she did often. “His ship's automated medical systems would likely have been scanning for him and beamed him aboard the moment they detected his beacon when we—”

A puff of smoke followed by the familiar stench of fried crystals wafting from the time machine cut her off mid-sentence. She shoved the laptop aside, lunged out of her chair heading to the rear of the jumper. “Why that treacherous little...”

Teal'c was already on it, with a fire extinguisher in hand.

“Wait, Teal'c!” Carter warned. “Chemical flame retardant will just make it harder to repair.”

“And a fire in here will make it a whole lot harder to breathe,” Jack pointed out, his attention divided between the time machine and their position in orbit. “Get it under control.”

Teal'c exchanged the extinguisher for a thermal blanket.

Ignoring Carter's earlier admonishment to conserve power, Jack activated the HUD. What he saw did not inspire him with confidence. The only moving blip on the screen, presumably the Asgard vessel, was already accelerating out of orbit.

“Sir, we have to catch that ship,” Carter called from the rear. “Otherwise we could be stranded here in 1947.”

“Assuming this is 1947,” Daniel said, leaning over Jack's shoulder to scan the planet below.

Jack brought the jumper around just in time to see the Asgard ship vanish inside a glowy spider-web hyperspace portal, certain he knew where—or rather when—they were. “Oh, it's 1947 all right, otherwise that skinny-assed Dr. Mengele wannabe wouldn't be high-tailing it outta here.”

While Jack was the first to admit he was no intellectual giant, he knew when he'd been had—a feeling he'd had, more or less, since the moment General Carter had walked into the control room back in the SGC. This just confirmed it. He turned in his chair just fast enough to be reminded that his ribs felt like crap. “Carter?”

Abandoning what now looked more like a char-grill than a piece of Ancient technology, she came forward, leaving Teal'c and Daniel to beat out the remains of the fire the old fashioned way. “Sir, the time machine's power supply module and operating unit are completely burned out.”

“Then I take it the answer to my next question is no?”

“If your next question is 'does this mean if the temporary relay to the jumper's drive systems fails, we'll lose all ancillary systems?' then the answer is yes, sir.”

“Actually, Carter, I was going to ask if you—or the other you—thought to pack some lunch.”

Carter didn't seem to appreciate his attempt at levity. Instead, she opened the panel on the Asgard transport. The stream of un-Carter-like invectives that followed left Jack in no doubt about what she thought of that superior little snake-skinned pest, Loki, and his dodgy wiring.

“When you say ancillary systems,” asked Daniel. “You don't mean things like the HUD and anti-grav, do you?”

“I mean everything. Anti-grav, life support, shields—every system in the jumper. Maybe not all at once, but that opal isn't going to last for long. We're going to have to land—sooner rather than later—so I can salvage what I can and reconfigure the systems.”

Daniel collapsed back into his seat behind Jack; his shoulders slumped. “I should have seen this coming. No, wait, I did see it coming, it's just that with leaving Vala and Mitchell behind—”

“Daniel, let it go.” Jack turned back to the controls. He'd heard the guilt, the self-recrimination in Daniel's voice. It was the same guilt Jack had been forced to deal with years ago. Command was like being fed a set of minnow hooks. They curled up inside your stomach just waiting to unfold and dig in the moment you made a decision that sent anyone into harm's way. The first time someone under his command had died, the hooks had acquired double barbs. These days, he was pretty darned certain they'd land a good-sized shark.

That path led to going not so slowly crazy. Decisions were often made in the heat of battle. Sometime they were good. Sometimes they weren't. You just had to find a way to deal with them.

If you didn't find a way to deal with them, they would end up tearing you apart— which brought him back to the whole thinking about retiring thing again.

Carter, who was standing over her laptop, said, “Sir, I recommend you take us down using minimal power for ancillary systems, including inertial dampeners, and making only minor adjustments to any controls. It'll take longer but we can't risk overloading the power relays.” Sliding back into the seat beside him, she began poking around inside the guts of the Asgard transport device. “I don't know as much about Asgard beaming technology as I'd like.”

From behind her, Teal'c said, “O'Neill, did you not earlier state that General Carter requested you recover an Asgard named An from this time?”

It was night outside. Jack concentrated his thoughts on not bumping into anything on the way down. The jumper's collision avoidance technology had failed spectacularly when it came to time travel. Hopefully it worked better during normal operations, without sucking up too much power. “Yeah, except General Carter was a little short on the details, and the only Asgard ship around just took off for galaxies unknown.”

“Sir, if you'd known what was going to happen, you might have inadvertently avoided the Ha'tak, in which case Ra might have invaded Earth in 1908.”

“Care to theorize what leaving behind Mitchell and Vala achieved?” Despite what he'd just said to Daniel, Jack made no attempt to keep the anger from his voice. He still couldn't figure out whether General Carter had come back in time knowing that they'd successfully retrieved An, or hoping they'd succeed, thereby altering a small snippet in history. He personally didn't give a damned either way—except that he'd been forced to leave people behind. He didn't want an explanation; he wanted a solution.

After a moment's pause in which Carter's face went through several interesting contortions, she said, “Exactly what did I... General Carter, say about An, sir?”

Jack concentrated on keeping the jumper level. All right for Carter to say use minimal power on the inertial dampers, but it wasn't as easy as it sounded, not thinking about using power. “That he vanished after an accident damaged his ship, and they think he died.”

“Which,” Daniel said, “we now know was our doing.”

“Loki was injured and his ship put him into a medical pod—”

“Which is apparently what's just happened.”

“Daniel who's telling this story?”

“Sorry. I was just...you know.”

Yeah, he knew. Daniel was no more letting it go than Jack could. “Heimdall was going over Loki's files when she—”

“She?” Carter piped up.

“Seems the Asgard like to be genderized now.”

Carter winced. “Really? I wonder if I've ever offended them?”

“Colonel, do you want to hear this or not?”

“Sorry, sir. It's just that Thor has always maintained the Asgard were never detected in all their visits to Earth.”

“Yeah, well, he stopped maintaining that after I gave him a souvenir from Roswell.”

“You did?” Carter was staring at him, he could tell even without looking. “What was it?”

“I believe it was the same as you gave me, O'Neill,” Teal'c called from the rear.

“Couple of sizes smaller,” Jack reminded him.

“Jack?” Daniel's voice was definitely accusatory. “What was it?”

“Just a T-shirt.”

“You bought Thor a T-shirt?” Carter said, not attempting to hide the incredulity in her voice.

“With the logo, I am an alien beneath a photograph of an Asgard,” Teal'c explained.

“Hey, he liked it!” Jack said quickly. “Anyway, Thor and Heimdall did some checking. They matched the dates to An's disappearance, and figured Loki used what presumably was us banging into their ship as an opportunity for a little academic advancement.”

“Y'know,” said Daniel, “I recall some story about the Air Force recovering several bodies from the Roswell crash. And they later claimed they were test dummies?”

“Army” Carter corrected, glancing between the HUD and her laptop. “The Air Force wasn't a separate wing of the military until August 1947.”

“I believe they recovered three bodies,” Teal'c amended. “And two survivors, one of whom died at the Roswell Army Air Field hospital soon after arrival.”

Eyes wide, Carter turned in her seat and stared at him.

“I have read a great deal about the Roswell incident,” Teal'c added. “While sources appear largely unreliable, there is nevertheless some consistency.”

“Now, see, this just proves my point to the comptroller squadron that we need our subscription to the National Enquirer.” At their current rate of descent they could be on the ground in four minutes. Seven if he cut back on the inertial dampeners and diverted power to the HUD, which, under the circumstances, was preferable. Streaks of pink across the eastern horizon warned Jack that the sun would be up real soon, and they needed to find a place to land other than smack bang in the middle of miles and miles of nothing but rocks and sand.

Carter was still engrossed in whatever she'd removed from the transport device. “An was a genetic engineer running experiments,” she said. “He was probably carrying blank Asgard clones. But even an Asgard ship, or in this case, parts of one, would have burned up during an uncontrolled reentry.”

“Some reports from 1947 indicate that several ships similar in design to powered Asgard escape pods were involved in maneuvers, possibly even a pursuit of one another,” Teal'c said from behind.

“That would explain the bodies,” Daniel replied thoughtfully. “Although it's interesting that there's no mention of casualties or wreckage in any of the classified Pentagon documents we were given.”

“C'mon, Daniel,” Jack retorted, scanning the landscape for somewhere to put down. “Fifty years from now some poor sap is gonna be sifting through Pentagon files on the Stargate. program and find they're missing half the planets we visited. Probably a galaxy or three by then, too.”

With very little effort, he was able to fine-tune the HUD to display several data outputs simultaneously, including a three-dimensional terrain matrix, variable heat sources differentiating human and animals from artificial, and the density and nature of vegetation and buildings. Despite the dire nature of the situation they were in—what with messing with timelines and being stranded in the past and all—a part of Jack couldn't help feeling a thrill of anticipation. This technology was a combat pilot's ultimate wish list. With the Ancient gene therapy running at fifty percent success rate, the concept was already being considered for the next generation of hybrid fighters. “Carter, any particular bit of sagebrush you want me to land behind?”

“He beamed himself out.”

That was unsettling. Jack did not like to hear overtones of disbelief in Carter's voice.

“I've just checked the log—it's about the only thing that isn't damaged. Loki's ship didn't automatically beam him out. He repaired this—” Carter tapped the scanner and turned to Daniel. “And then he set it to beam himself back to his ship, deliberately overloading it so it would bum out, once he was gone.”

Carter didn't have to say the rest. But for Loki, they could have retrieved Mitchell and Vala. Even with his back turned, Jack could feel Daniel's simmering rage.

He wasn't feeling too charitable himself at the moment. Next time he laid eyes on Loki, Jack decided, diplomatic fallout be damned, he was going to stuff that supercilious little puny-assed weasel into a glass jar, fill it with embalming fluid, and donate it to the Smithsonian.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Daniel Jackson's dark countenance was familiar to Teal'c, and for a fleeting moment he regretted the decision he'd made in requesting Vala's assistance in restoring Loki's breathing. But it was also true that the future had yet to unfold. Despite O'Neill's evident mistrust of General Carter's motivations, Teal'c was confident that she would not have acted dishonorably.

Visibly taking control of her anger, Colonel Carter said, “Teal'c, I know there's no way to be certain what actually happened, but what other rumors are there regarding the survivors of the Roswell crash?”

While Teal'c had always considered the stories to be nothing more than amusing entertainment, it was now evident that some aspects were indeed factual. “One account suggests that the sole survivor lived in a secret facility in Washington DC for ten years. The majority of the stories, however, agree that he either died in the Roswell Army Air Field base hospital or was killed by on over-zealous soldier.”

Colonel Carter took a moment to consider his words before responding. “According to the log, Vala locked onto four signals—ours—then just before beaming us out, she confirmed a fifth indistinct signal. There appears to have been either a ghosting of that signal, which she could have easily mistaken for a weak Doppler shift, but I've just analyzed it and it's a distinct, sixth signal.” Her gaze took in O'Neill, Daniel and Teal'c. “Sir, that could be An. If I'm right, he's still aboard the crashed escape pod.”

“Don't those things have transport devices?”

In order to effect repairs to an Asgard ship some years earlier, Teal'c had familiarized himself with the vessel's schematics. “I believe you are correct, O'Neill.”

“Given the speed at which Loki managed to jury-rig the time machine, An may be able to help us,” Colonel Carter conceded. “Assuming he's still alive and the second signal was—is—not from a clone.”

Daniel Jackson removed his glasses to polish the lenses. “Personally, Sam, I'd sooner you fix the thing than allow another Asgard anywhere near it.”

“Took the words right out of my mouth.” O'Neill nodded agreeably.

Colonel Carter appeared troubled by that declaration. “Assuming the escape pods do have transports on board, An should have beamed himself out, but he didn't,” she said. “Why?”

“Loki was severely injured,” Teal'c reminded her. “Perhaps An, too, was injured.”

Daniel Jackson leaned forward. “Jack, do we have enough power to take a sweep over the crash site?”

“Why? Crashing isn't enough for you? Now you wanna go sightseeing as well?”

Colonel Carter checked the output on her laptop. “If you can maintain our height, I think we can risk using the HUD.”

While outside it remained dark, the view on the HUD shifted with a blur, bringing up an image of dry mountains speckled with vegetation. “Just north of the Capitan Mountains,” O'Neill observed. “I'll see if we can pick up the wreckage.”

The HUD obliged, and two signals appeared, separated by what the scale on the image indicated was approximately thirty miles. While both signals were equally powerful, that which appeared at the foot of the mountains displayed a single dot, whereas the second signal to the northwest was scattered, as if to indicate wreckage over an area of what Teal'c estimated was approximately twenty acres—a fact that came as no surprise to him.

“Wow.” Colonel Carter was examining closely the data that appeared on the HUD. “No question that's the same composite material the Asgard use in their ships.” She pointed to the single, cohesive signal. “Sir, can you zoom in on that?”

An insert image appeared in the corner of the HUD, and expanded on an area that Teal'c realized was lit up like a Ha'tak construction site. The image telescoped further until he could distinguish several military vehicles, a flatbed truck and. a great many people running around, apparently aimlessly.

“Crap,” O'Neill muttered. “Someone beat us to it.”

Daniel Jackson peered at the display. “Some weather balloon.”

Confirming Teal'c's initial assessment, Colonel Carter said, “That's definitely a powered escape pod from a Beliskner class Asgard ship.”

“Okay, we got something.” O'Neill adjusted the setting. “Two Asgard life signs just outside the pod.”

“Hopefully one of them is An,” Colonel Carter observed. “And we don't end up with a pair of clones.”

“We can't just land the jumper and order the military to hand them over,” Daniel Jackson reminded them.

Colonel Carter gave the transport device a look that signaled her displeasure. “Loki knew we were looking for An. I'm certain, now, that he sabotaged our transport and probably the time machine, too, to prevent us reporting what he'd done.”

“Teal'c,” O'Neill said, “you're officially our resident expert on all things Roswellian. What are we seeing, here?”

“Many scenarios, have been suggested, O'Neill. However this would appear to support the claim that the escape pod was detected by modified SRC-584 mobile radar units situated at White Sands. Upon realizing the escape pod had crashed, members of the military were dispatched to contain the area.”

Daniel Jackson's gaze shifted from the HUD to Teal''c. “I thought some rancher found the Roswell saucer?”

“I believe you are referring to the Corona site, northwest of the mountains toward Albuquerque, where a second escape pod was destroyed upon impact.” Teal'c pointed to the scattered signal. “The military failed to detect this crash. The rancher, Marc Brazel, reported his discovery to the Sheriff of Roswell several days later.”

O'Neill studied the primary crash site in silence for a moment and then shook his head. “With the jumper crippled, there's no point trying to recover the Asgard, even supposing we could get near the pod with the Army running around trying to lift it onto a flatbed.” He adjusted the settings, zeroing in on the debris scattered over the Corona site. The image further narrowed on a smaller concentration of wreckage above an escarpment.

“Sir,” Colonel Carter asked. “Try and fine tune it for Asgard biological material.”

The sight of human or Jaffa remains subsequent to a crash was not new to Teal'c. Given the wide debris field, he expected to see little of value, but it did not surprise him when four Asgard corpses lying crumpled against the rocks came into sharp focus, for that was exactly the condition in which Brazel had reported them. Other than animal predation, the bodies were largely intact. “It would appear they leaped from the pod just prior to impact.”

“Those bodies have been exposed to the elements for several days,” Colonel Carter observed.

The image faded and in its place, the primary site reappeared. Indicating the Asgard signals, Daniel Jackson said, “If one of those is An, he may not survive for much longer.”

“Maybe, but we can't risk interfering with this timeline. Our best chance is to wait until the Army has removed everything to—” Colonel Carter looked around at Teal'c. “Where?”

“All reports agree that the wreckage was stored in Hangar P-3, which in our time is known as Hangar 84, at the Roswell Army Air Field.”

The HUD flickered. “Sir, we really need to land,” Colonel Carter advised. “The power relay—”

Teal'c felt an abrupt drop in height just as the HUD vanished. As demonstrated by their landing on Rhode Island, the mind reading capabilities of Ancient technology were of little value if O'Neill did not have power to the drive pods.

“We've got a hundred thousand feet and some forward momentum to play with,” O'Neill announced, pointing to a cluster of lights almost directly ahead of them. “Roswell Air Field is about thirty five miles southeast. All I need is for the Ancient computer to calculate an optimal unpowered glide path.”

“I distinctly recall you saying jumpers don't glide.” Daniel Jackson appeared unconvinced. “Something about them having the drag coefficient of a house brick?”

A few pink streaks lit the sky to the east. Descending rapidly, O'Neill reported, “I'm milking whatever residual power exists in all onboard systems, including life support, and redirecting it to the inertial dampeners.”

Colonel Carter was tapping the keyboard of her laptop. “Bringing up schematics for Roswell Army Air Field, now. The 509th Division was—is—stationed there along with the country's entire stockpile of nuclear bombs.”

“We had a stockpile of nukes in 1947?” Daniel Jackson sounded incredulous.

“Fifteen bombs, the only aircraft equipped to deploy them, the pilots and bombers trained to release them, and the largest landing strip in the world.”

“In other words, Jack, the most heavily guarded installation on Earth. And you're planning to land there?”

“Sure, Daniel, I'm just going to park the jumper outside Hangar P-3, flash my shiny general's stars to the guards on duty and demand they hand over the Asgard and the escape pod.” It was evident in his maneuvers that O'Neill was attempting to coax height from the jumper.

“Actually, sir, that's not a bad plan—at least the landing part.”

“It isn't?” O'Neill and Daniel Jackson spoke simultaneously.

“There's a long, narrow gully at the end of the main runway.” Colonel Carter pointed through the windscreen to a shadowy ditch parallel to a road leading from the base into town. “If you can land there, we might be able to camouflage the jumper with shrubs.”

It was difficult to be certain in the pre-dawn light if it was indeed a gully filled with vegetation, but they had run out of options. O'Neill was barely able to retain sufficient control to ensure they would not land out in the open.

“Sir, if you can, try and retract the drive pods just before we actually hit—”

“Hang on,” O'Neill warned.

Silhouetted against the dawn sky, the vegetation abruptly took on more angular dimensions. “Pull up!” Colonel Carter shouted.

The ground rushed up to meet them. “Oh...crap!” O'Neill declared before they went in.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Vala fell beside Howard directly into an open packing case filled with straw. Apparently bubble-wrap hadn't yet been invented which was probably fortunate because while straw was shockingly flammable when dry, it didn't burn well when saturated. Bubble wrap, so Vala had discovered one day in the SGC's kitchens, turned into a noxious, gooey mess in high temperatures, and clung to one's shoes when you tried to stomp it out.

A spray of water slapped her in the face. The plumbing in the storeroom beneath the staircase of the geochem building had not taken kindly to having a section of floor collapse on it. A thrashing hand came next, as Howard struggled to free himself from the box. Motivated by the flames, jets of water, and screech of collapsing timbers, the boy was oblivious to her presence and determined to escape through a gap in the wall only partially obscured by smoke.

Vala didn't waste any time following. By the time she was out in the open, her eyes were stinging and her throat and lungs felt like they'd been scoured by a sandstorm. With Howard presumably safe, she needed to orient herself in order to locate Mitchell. A hand roughly grabbed her from behind and she went to retaliate until she realized the owner was yelling at her to get back. A moment later, the far side of the building blew out in a deep-throated whoomp followed by a groan of collapsing ironwork. The upper sections of the structure fell inward with a hiss of sparks, scattering people and horses. Someone tripped and stumbled over a darker shadow protruding from the still standing wall on the lee side. People banged into her as they fled past, but she ignored their cries and urges to get back. Tugging the hand device from insider her vest, she pulled it on as she ran toward the shadow she hoped was Mitchell.

The stone wall offered some protection from the heat, but nothing was going to be able to hide what she was about to do. Too bad about Carter's admonishment not to interfere with the timeline, because she could sense that Mitchell's heart was failing. While the hand device could restore the worst of the damage and keep his heart going, the will to live was entirely up to the Colonel.

It was something that had frustrated Qetesh on several occasions. Pleasure and pain only worked so many times before your victim chose death as the preferable outcome, then nothing short of a sarcophagus was capable of restoring them. And Qetesh had never allowed another body other than the one she inhabited, to sully her precious piece of immortality.

Mitchell was made of considerably sturdier material, and even unconscious he fought death like a Jaffa warrior, as if allowing himself to die was a dishonorable failing. It was all that saved him, but given the tongues of flame licking what was left of the roof, it wouldn't be for long unless she could get him out of here—now.

Help came from an unexpected quarter. Face streaked with soot and grime, Howard appeared, wordlessly helping as Vala hefted Mitchell to his feet. Groggy and barely responsive, the Colonel nevertheless managed to bear some of his own weight as they headed into the park. Vala would have voiced her encouragement, but her throat was raw. Her hands and face also felt parboiled but it was nothing compared to those moments of agony at the mercies of the Ori's pet worshippers.

And she had certainly not lost her sense of self-preservation when it came to members of authority. Steering away from a collection of brass-helmeted people running around with fat hoses leaking water everywhere, she guided Mitchell across the road, moving as much as possible in the patchwork of shadows, until they were well down a narrow if rather smelly alley.

Slumping to the ground behind a collection of refuse bins reeking of urine and rotting food, she took a few moments with the ribbon device to repair her own minor injuries before attending to Howard. The youth's bloodshot eyes were wide and frightened in the light, but the cessation of pain from several minor burns seemed to have a positive impact. “What... what are we going to do?”

“Absolutely nothing. I need a few minutes to recover before I can finish treating Cam's injuries.” By which time they should have been beamed aboard the jumper and be on their way. She glanced through the end of the alleyway, noting that the glow from the fire seemed less pronounced. “I think they're getting it under control.”

Despite the warmth of the mid-summer air, Howard shivered. Possibly he was wet from the broken plumbing, or more likely it was a reaction to events far beyond his ability to comprehend. Stumbling over the words, he asked, “Will... will your friends be back for you?”

“Of course.” Vala was surprised by the assuredness of that statement. She had become a member of SG-1, and for the first time in more lifetimes than was perhaps good for any human to remember, felt perhaps she really had found a home. Smiling and patting his hand, she added, “You were a huge help, Howard. Truly. Couldn't have done it without you.”

“The story... You began to tell me about where you came from. Can...will you tell me while we wait?”

Sam would have her head for this, but Howard really was deserving of an explanation. Vala glanced up. The night sky was fading to dawn. Any minute now, they'd be beamed aboard. “Well, it all started a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Sam's warning had been a knee-jerk reaction; just as a passenger instinctively slams their foot on a non-existent brake peddle in a car that's going too fast. Pulling up is exactly what you can't do in an unpowered wingless, rudderless flying box. At least the pods had—surprisingly—retracted, which prevented them from being further damaged or the jumper from being tipped over as it tunneled into airframes and tires.

Their rapid deceleration was noisy and visually frightening, but there was no sense of impact even when they slammed to an abrupt halt against the wheel struts of an old B-52.

Okay, since the inertial dampers and shields were operational, that ruled out a power supply problem. “Sir, I think it might just be a matter of reconfiguring the connections to the power cell.”

The General turned and fixed her with a stern glare. “Shrubs in New Mexico in July? Carter, what were you thinking?”

Grimacing, Sam pushed herself out of her seat. “Sorry, sir, bad call.”

“Maybe not.” Daniel limped to the rear of the jumper and opened the hatch to a blast of warm desert air and the deafening grumble of massive, propeller driven aircraft engines. Something big and heavy had just taken off, which passed directly overhead, shaking the ground beneath them.

They had landed the jumper in a gully, but not one carved out by the ephemeral rivers that scoured the New Mexican landscape. Piled high behind them were old jeep bodies and cranes, truck and aircraft parts, and stacked bundles of Marsden Matting, the steel plating that the Seabees had used in WWII to construct temporary airstrips, all of which amounted to the best camouflage they could have hoped for. Waiting until the noise of the engines had abated, Sam declared. “We're in a garbage dump.”

Climbing stiffly out of his seat in a manner that spoke of injuries he wasn't willing to admit to, the General carefully walked out onto the ramp and looked around. “Excellent!”

Sam followed. The jumper had mostly buried itself beneath the mangled remains of several P-38s. The shrapnel and bullet scarred blue star and red stripes on the fighters' aluminum fuselages were a poignant reminder of a war just ended. Through the frames and wing struts, she could see a few last stars clinging to the dawn sky. Security cameras had yet to be invented, but even supposing their ungainly arrival had gone unnoticed, the sound of the crash must have attracted attention.

Or not. Another loud rumble built to an earsplitting pitch. Sam covered her ears and reflexively cringed as the black underbelly of an aircraft only a few feet overhead briefly blot-ted out the sky. She immediately identified it as the lumbering giant Superfortress. The jumper had come to a halt in the section of ditch directly at the end of the runway.

When the aircraft had passed, O'Neill said, “Teal'c and I'll check things out. Maybe we can use some of that matting as additional cover. Carter, you and Daniel see what you can do to get us operational again.”

“I'll be more help if I come with you.”

The General pointedly stared at the field dressing on Daniel's leg. “Maybe you should take care of that, first.”

Daniel looked like he was about to object, but conceding defeat, turned back inside the jumper, grabbing the medical kit as he went. Sam was certain the General was also injured, nursing a set of bruised ribs most likely, but at least he was still alive. The head wound she'd seen earlier, before Vala had used the hand device, had, frankly, scared the hell out of her.

They had Vala to thank on several counts, including reversing the effect of countless dartball wounds on Sam's arms and legs, which had made leaving her and Cam in 1908 that much harder to swallow.

Damn Loki for his self-aggrandizing opportunism. But the fault did not rest entirely with him. She should have paid more attention to what the Asgard was doing instead of taking his word that he had made the necessary repairs. Her only excuse was that she'd barely had time to prepare the jumper for flight before Daniel had come tearing back from Brown University.

The panel on the time machine was warped, and pieces of the lightweight material, now blackened and twisted with heat, were lying on the deck. Prying open the machine, she glanced inside, and suddenly felt the urge to kick something—or someone. “Why that little—”

“More of Loki's creative repairs?”  Daniel ventured.

For an Asgard, Loki had proven to be surprisingly inept when it came to cloning O'Neill, so Sam supposed the current mess could have been due entirely to incompetence. But given the way he'd set the dates on the time machine plus that little trick with the transport, she doubted it. “Loki reconnected the power supply unit too close to the crystals. The entire device is pretty much slag.” Which meant that even presupposing they could locate An, and he was willing to help, they were not going to get the time machine operational again.

Sam would normally have been confident in fixing anything, but not only was the Ancient technology largely different to that used by the Asgard, some of the exotic materials were not even available on Earth.

The prospect of being trapped in 1947 was bad enough, but what about Teal'c? He had only a limited supply of Tretonin, and it wasn't exactly an over-the-counter drug.

Several loud thunks from outside reminded her that the priority was getting the jumper operational. She went to the cockpit and, seeing Daniel's bare leg and bloodied shorts from behind, said, “You sure that bullet just grazed you?”

He was swabbing away the last of the crusted smears of blood. A little clear fluid oozed out but from where Sam was standing it looked to be otherwise clean. “I think most of it's inside Cam's pelvis.” He met her gaze. “Half an inch higher and I'd have been singing soprano. Y'know, every time we've taken fire in the past, no matter how insane the situation, someone believed they actually had a reason to be shooting at us. But back there in that damned tack room...” He winced again and Sam didn't think it was from the pain. “A drunk with a gun. That's all it took.”

“Don't worry, we'll get them back.” Judging by his expression, her reply sounded as trite and hollow to Daniel as it did to her.

Sam couldn't help shake the feeling that she was missing something incredibly important here, some hint of what the hell was really going on, because none of this made sense. Her older self had sent O'Neill and Vala back in time in order to recover SG-1 and An. Aside from her inability to reconcile the logic of going back in time to save herself, why would she, as General O'Neill put it. be gallivanting around time?

Had the Ori been defeated? Or had they, empowered with the same abilities as the Ancients, decided that a time machine could be utilized as a weapon? Such an application had certainly appealed to the Pentagon, which is why they'd had her researching the Stargate as a time travel device following the first Abydos mission.

Turning to the laptop, she brought up the schematics of the jumper, hoping that the engineering challenge would take her mind off that circular conundrum, at least for the moment. The simulations she'd run when they'd been parked on Rhode Island had ascertained the optimal power configuration while using the time machine and transport. Now that those pieces of equipment were out of the equation, she could focus entirely on the jumper's systems.

“Hello,” Daniel muttered. “One of these things is not like the other.”

Sam looked up. He'd dressed his wound and had found a pair of jeans to change into, having already used the spare BDU pants he normally kept in his pack. He was also dangling a packet of antibiotics from one hand, while in the other he held a similarly clear packet—except this was filled with spongy looking colored shapes that she recognized.

“Not that it's a bad idea or anything,” he added, “but since when have medical kits come with Asgard MREs?”

“Cam and Teal'c repacked the kit after Vala opened it. Maybe—”

Daniel cut her off with a shake of his head. “This was in the unopened medical supplies, not the First Aid kit.”

Something yellow fluttered to the deck by Daniel's foot. Sam leaned over, picked up the slightly crumpled sticky note, and recognizing her own handwriting, read, “An likes the green ones but he's going to need the red.”

A wave of irritation swept over her. Why had she found it necessary to be so damned cryptic in her old age? And if her older self had thought to pack Asgard food, why not something useful, like a spare time machine and Asgard transport or maybe a power supply unit or two?

She knew the answer, of course, but it didn't make the situation any less exasperating.

“Guess that's a good sign,” Daniel said. “You—I mean General Carter—wouldn't have packed them unless you... she...was certain we'd recover An.” He popped a couple of antibiotics from the gel pack and downed then with a mouthful of water.

“We got company!” O'Neill was holding his arm across his chest as he ducked into the rear of the jumper.

His ribs definitely needed attention, but Sam's immediate concern was the realization that no additional aircraft had taken off since the first two that they'd heard. If flight operations had been discontinued because someone had seen or heard the jumper, the place would be crawling with MPs any minute.

She had to get the jumper cloaked.

Turning to the laptop, she initiated a new simulation giving the cloaking function priority, and then glanced back through the hatch.

Daniel was repacking the medical kit. “How many?”

“Three.” The General's eyes fastened on the Asgard food.

“Five,” corrected Teal'c, coming into the jumper. “Two further soldiers in a vehicle are headed in this direction.”

Avoiding what she expected would be another reproachful look from O'Neill, Sam focused on the computer screen and said a silent thank you to Radek Zelenka for taking the time to integrate the jumper's onboard diagnostic systems with a fully-digitized technical manual detailed enough to make an Air Force crew chief green with envy. The simulation provided a recommended configuration, and the manual promptly called up the appropriate schematic and associated instructions.

The sound of a jeep approaching cut through the early morning silence. Working as she talked, Sam opened the control panel, pulled out the opal rock and began configuring the crystals. “Sir, we have only one functioning power supply module but it's in good shape. It'll take me a few moments to set up, but I think I can get us cloaked. We'll also have full flight and anti-grav capabilities and inertial dampeners, but the trade off is we can't cloak and use shields simultaneously, and life support and weapons are out.”

General O'Neill's eyes lit up. “We have weapons?”

While she appreciated his reaction to that announcement, Daniel was less enthusiastic. “I would have thought life support was a little more critical, Jack.” He headed to the back of the jumper where Teal'c was standing, collecting his zat on the way.

“Not if we fly under twelve thousand feet.” Sam confirmed each adjustment with the real time output on the laptop. “How long do we have?”

Teal'c raised his hand to indicate they should be silent. Using hand signals herself, Sam motioned for O'Neill to sit in the pilot's seat, but to not power up the jumper. Daniel and Teal'c quietly positioned themselves either side of the open hatch, while she continued to work; eight further alignments to make in four panels.

The sound of the jeep drew closer, passed them and... The brakes slammed on, maybe fifty feet away. Above the low rumble of the vehicle, someone yelled, “Hey, Charlie, over here.”

“What, Sarge? Don't tell me you're jumping at little green men, too.”

The engine was switched off. “Looks like something banged up in here pretty good.”

Sam eased the first panel closed, opened the second. Six crystals to go.

Laughter followed, before a third voice said, “What are you talking about? It's a pile of junk. Probably shifted around with all those B52s taking off. You ask me, I think the whole flying saucer thing is a load of hooey. The boys at White Sands probably lost one of them ex-per-i-men-tal rockets they been messing around with—”

“Hold on a sec,” the sergeant ordered, his tone indicating a worrying level of alertness. “You see that?”

Zat guns ready, Teal'c and Daniel aimed outside. Sam closed the compartment and opened the next. Three remaining.

O'Neill was glaring at her, silently urging her to hurry.

“What is it, Brownie?” A fourth voice this time, coming closer.

“It's like some big ol' plow or something dug a whole through... Lemme get my flashlight.”

“I don't know about no missile.” The first voice sounded skeptical. “You see that load Major Marcel and Captain Cavitt brought in? The Major's Buick was loaded to the roof. Me 'n Smitty got pulled outta bed at 0300 and ordered to unload the Captain's Carryall and pack it into crates.”

The voices faded and Sam slipped in the final crystal, closed the compartment, leaned close to the General and whispered, “Don't power up, just think about cloaking us.”

“...Pappy just flew out with the whole lot of it.”

“Where'd they take it?”

“Fort Worth, but I saw the flight plan. He's leaving the colonel there and taking everything to Wright.”

The implications of that statement alarmed Sam, but she focused on the power readings—which shifted, indicating minimal drain. She could not be absolutely certain they were cloaked because from within the jumper everything appeared unchanged—including their view through the open hatch. Outside, the beam of a flashlight cut through the patchwork of shadows cast by an intensely bright sunrise.

“There's a hole down there, like a cave or something,” said the sergeant. “I'm going down, I want to take a closer look.”

Sam's pulse raced when a pair of khaki-clad legs and polished black shoes dangled down through the wreckage less then ten feet from the rear of the jumper. While she knew the theory behind the jumper's cloaking capabilities, it was disconcerting when the beam from the sergeant's flashlight panned inside, causing her to flinch when it briefly hit her eyes. They could not allow the jumper to be discovered.

“I still reckon it was one of them rockets,” Charlie called from somewhere above. “White Sands; they don't tell no-one nothing. You remember what it was like around here right up until they tested that A-bomb.”

“Maybe,” the sergeant replied, edging closer. “But I've been out picking up their rockets before. Heck, just last month we got sent out to find that one they called a Hermes, that'd crashed outside Alamogordo. The stuff me and Brownie unloaded this morning weren't from no rocket.”

Teal'c reached for the mechanism controlling the rear hatch. Sam almost hissed a warning, but then she realized what he had in mind. If the sergeant kept coming, he'd walk straight inside the jumper, but if the hatch was closed, he'd encounter an invisible wall. The men were already on edge. Something that unusual should send them back to the base for reinforcements, by which time the cloaked jumper could be flown out of here.

When the hatch began to lift, a section of scrap metal fell, scraping loudly against the hull then crashing down. Someone from above yelled, “Get outta there, Brownie. The whole lot's about to come down!”

Teal'c paused. The hatch remained open just far enough for Sam to see the sergeant scrambling out of the pit. “There's nothing down there,” he reported. “You're right, Casey. These old gals have just shifted around some. Danged dangerous if you ask me. I'll report it to the Captain. Get him to post a warning to keep clear.”

The rest of the conversation was lost when the jeep engine started up again, and slowly faded into the distance.

Inside the jumper, they waited silently for several minutes, during which time Sam, her pulse pounding, ran another check on the systems. Finally, Teal'c opened the hatch fully, and went outside to make certain they were in the clear.

The General twisted in his seat to look behind him, letting out an involuntary grunt of pain.

“Jack, what's wrong with you?” Daniel sounded more annoyed than concerned.

Ignoring him, the General asked Sam, “What's the status of the time machine and Asgard transport?”

Her concerns about being discovered now eased, she could refocus on the larger problem. “Both are completely burned out, sir. I doubt I could even salvage spare parts.”

“Jack?” Daniel said, watching him wince as he rose to his feet.

“Maybe a little bruised around the ribs, that's all,” he begrudgingly allowed.

“Sir?”

The General silenced Sam with a look, but Daniel was not so easily dissuaded. “At the very least, they'll need strapping.” Refusing any argument to the contrary, he opened the medical kit.

The computer offered no easy answers, but Sam continued to stare at it while she considered their next move. In the sixty odd years since the 'Roswell incident', countless well-rendered sagas had evolved, all jam packed with elaborate details comprising mostly second and third-hand evidence. From Japanese Fu-Go balloons and Project Mogul high altitude balloons to detect anticipated Soviet missiles to the Operation Paperclip medical experiments using Progeria victims, each new premise was more fantastical than the last. Even those who subscribed to the UFO theory had never agreed on particulars. Where details were missing they had been filled in by speculation until the result was a compelling verisimilitude of crashed UFOs and secret government agendas. Enlarged and factualized in the retelling, it had filled countless books and web sites and formed the basis of a dozen movies and television shows.

While the general public was correct in assuming that Area 51 stored, experimented with and developed hybrid alien-human technology, it had been entirely Goa'uld or Ancient in origin. Absolutely none of it had been Asgard. And it was that fact which now worried Sam.

All that she had to go on was that sometime in her future she would go back in time to 2006 knowing that An liked the green food cubes but would need the red...

Which gave her an idea. Turning around, she asked, “Daniel, where did you get those jeans?”

Busy with bandaging the General's chest, which, Sam noted, was the subject of a very impressive, multicolored bruise, Daniel nodded in the direction of the cargo bay. “Urn, in one of the supply boxes. Black one, beside the carton of MREs.”

Sam eased past them, while the General asked Teal'c, “What was he talking about, crates of stuff to Fort Worth? I thought you said the second crash site wasn't reported for days?”

Teal'c took a few moments before replying. “Details of the Roswell incident have been greatly disputed, O'Neill.”

“Hell, Jack, the Air Force has always disputed the entire incident,” Daniel said. “Hold still, will you? One of these ribs feels like it's busted. You're lucky you didn't puncture a lung.”

“It's not busted,” he retorted. “Just a little bent.”

Sam looked up in time to see Teal'c's eyebrow hike up a notch. “While some claim that the recovery team from White Sands secured the intact pod and Asgard within hours,” he said, “others suggest it took several days.”

“Sir, the Asgard bodies we saw were days, maybe as much as a week old. Before Vala healed him, Loki was pretty banged around.”

“Stands to reason An would have been in equally bad shape,” Daniel Jackson said. “A delay in rescuing him might guarantee he doesn't make it.”

“I believe today is July 7.”

“What makes you certain of the date, Teal'c?” Sam asked.

“When Brazel informed Roswell's Sheriff Wilcox of the debris and bodies at the second site, Wilcox reported the matter to the commanding officer of the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell, Colonel William Blanchard. Unaware of the White Sands recovery effort already underway at the first site, Blanchard dispatched Major Marcel and Captain Cavitt with Brazel to the second Corona site. Marcel filled his vehicle, a Buick, and Cavitt, a Jeep Carryall with wreckage, and returned to Roswell in the early hours of July 7.”

Sam wasn't surprised by the depth of Teal'c's knowledge. She strongly suspected that, along with his interest in science fiction movies, the Jaffa's fascination with UFO cults stemmed from an innate curiosity that, ruthlessly suppressed by the Goa'uld, had been unleashed following his arrival on Earth.

Equally, she wasn't surprised to learn that the White Sands recovery operation had been undertaken without consultation with Roswell Air Force Base. It was normal for top-secret information to be compartmentalized.

“Marcel stopped briefly at his home, waking his wife and son to show them the unusual metal before returning to the base at approximately 0200,” Teal'c continued. “Cavitt returned an hour later. Wreckage from both men's vehicles was loaded into wooden crates. At approximately 0600, a pilot named Pappy Henderson, flying a B-29 named Dave's Dream, transported the crates to Colonel Blanchard's superior at Forth Worth, General Ramey.”

A B-29—a Superfortress—had taken off over the top of them, right on sunrise. Sam glanced at O'Neill, who was obviously thinking the same thing. “Sir, contrary to popular opinion and countless conspiracy theories, no Asgard wreckage or bodies ever made it to Area 51. We would have known about it if it otherwise.”

“Here's a thought,” O'Neill said with a hopeful look. “Maybe that's because we took it instead?”

“Why would we? We only need the power module, and the transport system—if the one on board is functioning.”

“Do we know for certain if Marcel arrived at Fort Worth?” Daniel looked at Teal'c for confirmation.

Inclining his head in agreement, Teal'c said, “General Ramey ordered the crates flown from Fort Worth to Wright Field, and Major Marcel to pose for a newspaper photographer while holding a damaged weather balloon.”

While Teal'c talked, Daniel closed the medical kit and returned it to the cargo bay storage area. “The photograph on page one of the Roswell newspaper.”

“That is correct, Daniel Jackson. Colonel Blanchard issued a press release several hours earlier, in which he announced that the Army had captured a flying saucer. This alerted authorities in Washington DC, who, upon realizing that the two crash sites were related, ordered a disinformation campaign, and that all wreckage and bodies from both sites be brought to Roswell Army Air Field.”

“Okay, fine. We wait until dark, spring An, and Carter can grab the parts she needs from the pod.”

“I am uncertain if An will survive until then, O'Neill. The bodies were reportedly autopsied that afternoon, then flown to Wright Field at 0200 the morning of July 8.”

Sam digested that in silence. Wright Field—what, in their time, would be named Wright-Patterson Air Force Base—might have been the assigned destination for the crates, but the fact remained that nothing from the Asgard crash had ever arrived there, or been sent on to Area 51 or the Pentagon for that matter.

That nagged at Sam, and she was about to say so when Teal'c added, “If this is indeed the morning of July 7, and events unfold as I have described, then an opportunity exists for Colonel Carter to access An before evening.”

Sam finished rifling through the supply case. No sticky notes, no hints, just ranch-hands' clothing for her, Daniel and the General that wouldn't raise an eyebrow in a mid-western 1947 town. When Teal'c explained what he had in mind, it made a lot more sense than trying to sneak into the building in broad daylight, and it would give her a few hours now to make certain the jumper was fully operational. Except... “Teal'c, didn't you say there were several versions of events?”

“By remaining here I will be able to monitor air traffic, Colonel Carter. That will indicate the likelihood of events unfolding as I have described.”

“You memorized all of the flights into and out of Roswell?” O'Neill accepted the shirt from Sam and pulled it over his bandaged chest. “Never picked you for the train spotter type, T.”

As plans went, it was better than what they generally had to work with, but Sam couldn't shake her concerns over the eventual fate of the wreckage—and the Asgard bodies.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The sign on the diner said coffee and ham and eggs breakfast for less than a dollar. Nothing about aliens yet, and there wouldn't be until a generation had passed and a nuclear physicist with a penchant for conspiracies turned a quiet little mid-Western town into the UFO capital of the world.

Sizzling burgers and a clatter of china plates muffled the buzz of conversation and a radio playing, the announcer told them, selected music brought to you by Roswell's very own radio station, KGFL. Daniel and Carter made for the booth furthest from the door, while Jack positioned himself between a pair of blue vinyl stools and leaned on the counter. The decor was just like any one of a thousand greasy spoons that had mushroomed across America in the post-war prosperity, all Formica and chrome, faux-terrazzo floors and chintz curtains. Except for the absence of nose rings, iPods, and cell phones, the patrons were the same ubiquitous mix as their modern counterparts, with maybe a slight bias toward cowhands and enlisted men.

A pinstripe-uniformed waitress made change for a traveling salesman-type then turned to Jack with a disinterested, “What'll it be, honey?”

“Thanks, Dorothy.” The salesman jammed the butt of his cigarette into his coffee cup, stood, and, dropping his folded newspaper on the counter, exchanged a wave with the aproned cook. “See you next week, Casey.”

Jack ordered steaks for three and eyeing the newspaper added, “Can I take this?”

“Sure,” replied Dorothy, popping gum. “I'll be by with the coffee in a moment.”

Dodging a flypaper strip polka-dotted with corpses, Jack went to the booth, placed the newspaper on the checkerboard tablecloth, and, careful of his ribs, slid into the seat opposite Daniel. “Where's Carter?”

“Bathroom.” Daniel unfolded the paper and read, “Roswell Daily Record, Monday, July 7. That confirms the date, which means Brazel should be in here soon, assuming this is the right diner.” Daniel scanned the front page, then flipped to the inside section. “Don't you find it a little disturbing how much Teal'c's enjoying our current predicament?”

“Hey, it doesn't get much better than being at ground zero of your favorite conspiracy.” The frown on Daniel's face prompted Jack to add, “Now, Daniel, don't be jealous. If it'll make you happy, on the way home we can stop off in Houston and check out who really was standing on that grassy knoll.”

“Given a choice, I'd much prefer to know exactly how Alexander the Great died.” Daniel paused before adding, “Or more pertinently, Tutankhamen.”

Dorothy appeared with three cups of coffee and passing conversation. “Gonna be a scorcher again tomorrow. Bureau says at least ninety.”

“Thanks.” Daniel looked up just long enough to flash her a distracted smile, and then went back to whatever had caught his attention.

Jack batted a couple of persistent flies away from the open bowl of sugar, vaguely wondering what year paper sachets made an appearance. Probably about the same time as lattes, he decided.

“That's...interesting.” Daniel was scanning the text with the sort of focus that he normally reserved for books the size of a small suitcase. “We could have a problem.”

Glancing around at the 1947 Roswell diner they were currently sitting in, Jack treated him to a baleful stare. “Ya think?”

“That's...um...not what happened.”

Part of an upside-down headline with 'museum' in the text caught Jack's gaze. “How about we forget old—and, dare I say, completely irrelevant—academic debates and stay focused on finding An and the stuff Carter needs, so we can get out of here?”

“No, you don't get it, Jack. This isn't...” Stabbing a finger at the page, Daniel lowered his voice. “Oh, my God. It is.”

A long silence followed before he succumbed to the bait. “Is what?”

“You're not going to believe this.” Blinking, Daniel looked up at Jack for a moment and then began to read. “As part of a larger exhibition of Egyptian artifacts and mummies on loan from the British Museum, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently displaying the Tutankhamen collection.”

Personally, Jack couldn't see what was not to believe, but he had a bad feeling he was about to find out.

“Who'd have thought?” The grumble in his stomach was probably more in anticipation of an unwanted piece of information and not, as Daniel's expression suggested, because he was hungry. “No,” he added, firmly. “You can't go to New York to look at a collection you can probably catalogue in your head anyway.” He picked up a small pitcher and poured milk into his coffee.

“We may have to.”

“Don't tell me. Couple of camping jars with Goa'uld stuffed inside of them?”

“Canopic jars. No. Worse.”

Jack waited for the punch line but Daniel's eyes were still flying across the print. When his grip on the newspaper turned white knuckled, Jack prompted, “Worse?”

“The collection,'“ Daniel read on, in a tone that suggested he knew he was going to win this argument, '“includes the massive stone rim of the well discovered the same night Lord Carnarvon died.'“ He looked up at Jack expectantly.

That didn't sound so bad. Carefully injecting only minimal interest in his voice, Jack said, “So?” Too much enthusiasm and he'd get Daniel's version of the entire history of the Egyptian pyramids. Again.

“There was no 'well' found that night or any other night, at least not the way they're describing it here.”

“Ah... That could be a problem. I suppose.”

Carter returned and slid into the seat beside Daniel. “I radioed Teal'c. Dave's Dream just landed. Eight military officers got out, including two Generals. He can't tell if they're Twining and McMullen but four men in black suits and another civilian also emerged. Teal'c figures they're the government agents and scientists flown in for the autopsies.”

Jack stirred his coffee. So far things were going according to what Teal'c remembered. “Maybe the timeline's only off by a well or two.”

“Sir?” Carter asked, looking puzzled.

“Five members of Carter's original team were dead within two years.”

“What?” Carter's head shot up. Wide eyed with indignation, she demanded, “When did that happen?”

Dorothy returned carrying three plates loaded with fried eggs, lashings of bacon, and hash browns—real hash browns, not the pre-packaged reconstituted twenty-first century versions—all but burying the massive T-bones. “You folks enjoy your meal now. Second coffee's on the house. Just holler if y'all want anythin' else.” The words ran together, trailing after her as she marched to the next customer.

“Not you, Sam.” Using a skill that seemed unique to academics, Daniel continued to read as he talked, blindly reaching around his overloaded plate and accurately zeroing in on his coffee. “Different Carter.”

At her blank look, Jack explained, “Daniel's found some Egyptian display in New York.” He picked up the bone handled knife and fork and started on the eggs. “He wants to go visit.”

Daniel tapped emphatically at what appeared from where Jack was sitting to be a grainy black and white photo. “I know this photograph. There's supposed to be only three people in it, not four.”

His voice carried a conviction that Jack read as guilt with a side helping of desperation. “C'mon Daniel, I know I said you probably know the entire collection by heart, but you can't claim to have seen every single photo—”

“You have to believe me on this, Jack.” The desperation downshifted into determination. “Only a limited number of photographs exist from that era, and they're all part of the Tutankhamen exhibition. This picture is identical in every way but one. There should only be three people standing there.”

Looking over Daniel's shoulder, Carter's face went slack. “Oh, no.”

Nothing like an 'oh, no' from Carter to put Jack off a perfectly good meal of undiluted cholesterol.

“Okay, what?” He tugged the paper from Daniel's grip and examined the image.

Against a backdrop of sand dunes and date palms were four people dressed more like escapees from a tea party at the British Embassy than archeologists. Despite the quality of the print, the tall woman looked vaguely familiar.

“Read the caption. Lord Carnarvon is on the left, standing behind his wife, Almina. The second man is Howard Carter. The woman holding his arm is...well, her face is shadowed by the parasol and sunbonnet, but take a closer look.”

Was it possible for coffee to curdle in your stomach? “Valerie Mitchell.”

“This is my fault. I left Vala and Cam in 1908,” Daniel said, his eyes carrying way too much guilt for Jack's liking.

“We left them, and we're going back for them.”

“But we didn't.” Daniel's gaze dropped to the newspaper. “That proves it.”

Carter took a deep breath and turned to him. “I don't like saying this, but maybe we're not supposed to. Think about it,” she added, forestalling his objection with a raised hand. “We were responsible for the accident that damaged An's ship and bringing down a Ha'tak in 1908. Maybe we can't go back for them. Maybe we're not meant to.” “Sam, you're forgetting the fact that the photo is only supposed to have three people.” Carter looked skeptical but Daniel plowed on. “Aside from that you need to understand the historical context. The man who financed the Tutankhamen dig, George Carnarvon, was an incredibly wealthy English Lord — thanks in good part to his marriage to Almina Wombell, heiress of the Rothschild fortune. When he was younger, Carnarvon was involved in a motor vehicle accident that left him weak and vulnerable to infection in the damp, English weather. So he more or less moved to Egypt and took up Egyptology as a hobby.”

One of the flies returned, fat and lazy, buzzing around their plates. Jack batted it away while Daniel fell into lecture mode. “It was an amazing period in history, and ripe for someone with Vala's talents. Not to mention her lack of scruples. Museums and wealthy philanthropists were literally buying concessions to excavate Egypt in the archeological equivalent of a gold rush. Carnarvon wasn't a professional Egyptologist, but he hooked up with someone who was, Howard Carter. The partnership would eventually uncover some of the most productive archeological finds of the era, including the lost temples of Queen Hatshetsup, Ramesses IV and Amenhotep I. In those days there were no antiquity laws, so Carnarvon, who was pretty much Carter's walking ATM, amassed the most extensive and valuable private collection of Egyptian artifacts in the world. Still, he didn't have the one thing that he really wanted—Theodore Davis's concession to the Valley of the Kings. In 1915, just six months before he died, Davis abandoned those rights believing that there was nothing more to be found.”

There was only so much of this that Jack could take, and no amount of caffeine, steak and eggs could help. Flicking the persistent fly into a sticky coil of paper, he said, “Daniel, can we please skip the history lesson and get on with the important stuff?”

“Jack, this is important because it's pivotal to the entire Stargate program.”

That got Carter's attention and, Jack had to admit, his. “Okay, but can you at least make it the abridged version?”

Outside, a couple of old Buicks and a dust-covered Dodge pickup trundled by, windows wound down low in deference to the stifling mid-afternoon heat.

“Carter and Carnarvon uncovered Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922,” Daniel explained. “Four months later, Carnarvon was bitten on the neck by a mosquito. No big deal, except he nicked it while shaving and it became infected. Within days he was critically ill with a respiratory infection. On April 5 1923, at 1:55am, he died. At precisely that moment, all the lights in Cairo mysteriously went out. Now listen to this.” He picked up the newspaper and read, “That same evening, Almina Carnarvon's female companion since 1914, an American woman named Valerie Mitchell, and her husband, Cameron Mitchell—”

Carter almost choked on her steak. “Husband?”

“—also died, having drowned in a large well that mysteriously erupted in a geyser from the desert sands behind the Giza pyramids. The waters of what would later become known as the Well of Ra vanished soon after, like a mirage. The Mitchells' bodies were never recovered. The curse of the King Tutankhamen had claimed its next victims.”

“Oh, my God.” Carter dropped her knife and fork and pushed her plate away. “They found the Stargate.”

Daniel, who now had Jack's undivided attention, handed the paper to Sam, stabbed a piece of meat, coagulated with egg yolk and fat, and forked it into his mouth.

“The Mitchells' disappearance,” Carter read, “along with several valuable artifacts discovered in Tutankhamen's tomb, fuelled endless speculation— Hold on a minute.” She looked up at Daniel. “The Giza DHD was taken to Germany in 1906. How could they have dialed the Stargate in 1922?”

“The hand thingy,” Jack said, through a mouthful of steak.

They both stared at him blankly.

“The other Carter, the General one... Actually, it was the guy with her, Herbert. He had the hand device that Cassandra used to send us home after we left 1969.”

Carter's eyes widened in understanding. Daniel was silent for a moment and then he nodded. “Carter and Carnarvon's excavation permit stipulated that they had to wait for the arrival of Egyptian authorities before entering any newly discovered tomb. The rift between Carter and the authorities was common knowledge, and it was an open secret that Carnarvon's daughter and several others entered Tutankhamen's tomb immediately when it was opened. It was also common knowledge that he allowed his guests to take several small items of gold and jewelry. Given Vala's tendency to kleptomania...”

“As unlikely as it sounds, it makes sense.” Carter sat back. She'd put a fair dent in her meal. “Vala would have identified the gold cuff immediately, and Cam's memorized every SG-1 mission report. He knows where the Stargate was buried.”

“So why'd they wait three months before using it?” Jack asked.

“Because Professor Langford had the dig concession around the Giza pyramids. I'm surprised they managed to bribe the right people and get the 'gate dug out in only three months. Then all they would have needed was a power source.”

“The power outage in Cairo that night.” Carter pushed her now empty plate aside.

Jack signaled Dorothy, who was patrolling the diner armed with a fully loaded jug of coffee and fresh mouthful of gum. When their cups were refilled, he said, “Okay, maybe. Doesn't mean we have to go running off to New York.”

“Professor Langford didn't discover the Stargate in 1928,” Carter reminded him.

“No Langford, no Stargate program,” Daniel muttered into his coffee.

“Daniel's right, sir. Leaving behind Cam and Vala has dangerously altered the timeline. Listen to this. Due to a restriction in floor space, the rim of the Well of Ra, displayed in an upright position, serves as a fascinating entryway into the New York Museum.'“ She dropped the paper onto her plate. “Without a capstone, with the 'gate displayed upright, if Ra sends anyone through now—”

“What are the odds of that happening?” Jack said dismissively, although he had to admit, not convincingly. It was an image that he'd never forgotten, and one that had literally caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end when he'd first laid eyes on it. The mummified remains of a jackal-headed Jaffa partially embedded in the capstone had, justifiably as it had turned out, prompted the Air Force into sending him to Abydos with a nuke. The evil gods of myths and legends hadn't been so imaginary after all.

“Depends on what happened after Vala and Cam went through the 'gate,” Daniel replied. “And where—or when—they went.”

Before Jack could ask what he meant by that, a cowhand burst in through the front door, cursing the military and Sheriff's Department alike. “I'm telling ya, Johnny,” he said to the smartly dressed guy who followed him in, “unless it's a bomb, I'm never gonna report one of their goddamned planes crashing again.”

Outside, a convoy of military trucks crawled past, heading toward the base.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“You know, you have to wonder, don't you?”

Vala's words broke through the steel wool clag that currently inhabited Cam's skull. Opening one gluey eye, he saw her sitting with her back to a filthy brick wall, young Howard sitting huddled beside her, apparently hanging off every word.

“Regards to what?” Howard wondered.

“Well, let's face it,” Vala said, twirling a curl of hair around her finger, “assuming the Ancients did create—or rather, recreate—all life in this galaxy, what were they thinking when they created the Goa'uld? I mean I've come across some nasty specimens in my time, but a creature that mixes its DNA with a human in order to create a slave race, and then sets itself up as a bunch of gods?”

“Didn't you say they were false gods?”

“As distinct from true gods? Have you encountered any of those around the universe?” She smiled and turned to him. “No, of course you haven't but aside from the odd fundamentalist who doesn't seem to need hard proof in any form, I haven't met anyone yet who really fits that description. And let's face it, the Ancients aren't stacking up too well in that regard, despite this whole Ascension thing they've got going.”

“What...the hell happened?” Cam asked. The last thing he remembered was walking into a tack room and—crap. He brought his hand up and felt around his groin. It was tacky with dried blood, and there was a hole in the cloth directly above...”Please tell me this isn't my blood.”

“Oh good, you're awake.” Vala redirected her smile at him and, standing, collected her borrowed coat and pulled it on. “We better leave before it gets too light, or we'll be spending the day in among these garbage cans. And yes, it is your blood but don't worry, all the bits are back in place and it's all healed up. As to whether the bits in question are still in work-ing order—”

“Thank you. I think.” He planted a hand against the grubby brick wall and pushed himself to his feet. “Where's Daniel?”

“Twiddling his thumbs in the rear of the jumper, I suspect, waiting for Sam to reconfigure the transport so that they can beam us aboard.”

Cam's vision was still slightly off, but he was fairly certain he'd heard that last part right. While he was happy about Vala finding the opal, he distinctly recalled the transport device having 'several critical errors', which weren't exactly fixable in this era. “I hate to be the pessimist, but I'm not so sure they're going to be doing any beaming us aboard until they get Loki back to—what year was it again?”

“1947.”

“To sort out the transport— Whoa! Did you say 1947?”

The smile on Val's face slipped a notch. “Yes. And I was trying not to think about that. In which case they might take a few-hours getting back here. But they will come back for us, won't they? I mean—” she laughed nervously— “they wouldn't leave us behind.”

1947, huh. Well, it made sense. “Guess you don't know much about General O'Neill.” He squinted and, edging out past a few garbage cans, looked along the alley to the line of horse-drawn fire trucks. “Uhm, did we start a fire?”

“Just a teensy one. Nothing that would interfere with Sam's precious timeline.”

“What's it like? 1947?” Howard asked, standing and ineffectually brushing the soot off his clothes.

“Dunno,” Cam replied. Now that he'd been reminded of Carter's warning about screwing around with the timeline, he frowned at Vala. “And I'm not sure it's such a good idea to be blabbing about what's out in the big ol' universe to all and sundry, either.”

The pounding in the back of his skull was subsiding, which made it a hell of a lot easier to focus on getting out of here. The back way was clearly out, given the amount of water and greasy cinders all over the ground...not to mention the place was crawling with helmeted police and firemen and what would—no doubt—be a bunch of angry Rhode Islanders wanting to get their hands on whoever had started the blaze.

“Do you think we can leave, now?” Howard asked uncertainly. “My mother will be concerned if I'm not in my room.”

Cam glanced down the other end of the alley. It faded off into the shadows. “Howard, do you have an attic?”

“No, but we do have a coal cellar.”

“Good enough.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Learning the Stargate was on public display in New York worried Sam for any number of reasons, not the least of which seemed to be that leaving Vala and Cam behind had changed history. That had now exposed Earth to a horror that would make the recent genocide of World War II pale by comparison.

Fifty years in their future, when Apophis stepped through the 'gate beneath Cheyenne Mountain, humanity had at least had some comprehension of the Goa'uld threat, and the technology they could employ to counter that threat. Now, in 1947, with no idea of the Stargate's true function, if Ra got it in his mind to return, New York would be a war zone before the military could even conceive of a defensive strategy.

Earth would fall in a matter of weeks.

The. burning question was: would Ra take it into his head to come through the Stargate? There was no way of knowing for certain, of course, but given Vala and Mitchell had been through the 'gate, there was a fair chance word had already got back to Ra that the Stargate on Earth was operational once more.

They had no choice. Sam had to find a way to repair the time machine and restore the past. Before Daniel had even answered the General's questions about the odds, her mind had been racing ahead. The past had been altered, which meant that any impact they might now have was no longer a consideration. Trivial details that had bothered her earlier, like paying for their meals with coins minted in 2002, vanished, and she focused on what resources they had available to them.

The arrival of the rancher, Marc Brazel, and the radio reporter, John McBoyle, was her and Daniel's cue to leave the diner—assuming the event they had come to intercept still happened. Sam hoped it would. Everything else about Roswell had so far seemed to fit with the known timeline. Recovering An and the escape pod was now vital for what she had in mind.

She eased out of the booth while the General folded the newspaper, tucked it under his arm, and followed.

“Calm down, Marc,” McBoyle was saying, patting the rancher on his shoulder. “Lemme buy you a cup of coffee and you can tell me all about what happened.”

“I've found stuff before, you know, those weather balloons the Army are always testing, but nothing like this.”

Sam didn't hear the rest. Leaving O'Neill to order more coffee for himself, she pushed open the door and stepped outside into a blast of searing heat. The temperature was still in the eighties even though it was almost 1700 hours.

The town lacked the glitz and plastic neon signs and the endless line of fast-food drive-throughs featuring super-sized meals. It reminded Sam of the Saturday movie matinees that her mother had loved. She was equally fascinated by the line of 1930s and 40s Packard's and Buicks, Fords and Chryslers angle parked along the dusty street, although it surprised her the vast bulk were black and grays, cream and navy or emerald. No bright shiny red and yellow models in this neck of the US. Also surprising was the number of women about who were either pregnant or pushing wicker perambulators. The baby boomer generation was well on its way.

“Sam, you still want to go through with this?” Daniel asked, falling into step beside her.

Turning right and heading west, they tugged their caps low over their faces in a mostly useless attempt to hide from the blinding sun as it crept toward the horizon. Sunglasses were out of the question. Her 2006 model aviator Ray-Bans would have drawn just the sort of attention Sam wanted to avoid, at least for the next couple of hours. After that, she'd be drawing a great deal of attention.

Provided her revised plan could be implemented.

“The only way to protect Earth is by restoring the timeline, Daniel. To do that, we need the Asgard transport. Then we can recover Cam and Vala before any of this happens.”

“Aren't you forgetting the little matter of a functioning time machine?”

“We have several options available to us. The simplest would be to recover the time-travel jumper on the planet where Colonel Maybourne was exiled, but that won't give us a transport.”

“But we've got that jumper.”

“Nope. Think about it.” She smiled and nodded at a middle-aged farmhand who tipped his hat as he passed them. Then she turned back to Daniel and added in a low voice, “This is 1947, we didn't take it until 2005. It's still there. And if it isn't there's always Janus's machine on Atlantis.”

Daniel almost stumbled. “You want to go to Atlantis?”

“We have a DHD enabled jumper and access—more or less—to two Stargates here on Earth. We can head to a planet in this galaxy where we steal an Al'kesh or Tel'tak, retrieve the ZPM from Proclarush Taonas, and use it to 'gate to Atlantis. We've changed our past, which means Elizabeth Weir will never go there, so Janis's time-travel enabled jumper will still be there. With the General able to access the Atlantis database, I should also be able to locate and install some sort of beaming technology.”

“Okay, fine, maybe, but how do we get the time machine back to Earth before Atlantis floods?”

“Dagan.”

“Dagan?”

“It's a planet in the Pegasus Galaxy. McKay's report went into great detail about how he found a ZPM hidden there by a secret Brotherhood. That ZPM will enable us to return to Earth. And once we go back to 1908, nothing we do here will matter, because our history will be restored.” I hope. The possibility that this timeline would continue on regardless didn't change the need to get back to their timeline.

He tried to keep the doubt from his voice, but Sam didn't fail to miss it. “In which case, should we even be considering rescuing An? Maybe we should just head to New York?”

Sam pulled the packet of Asgard food from her pocket. “I put this in the medical kit, Daniel. I have to trust that I did so for a reason. By the time we return from Atlantis, An could be dead.”

They turned left again, down a dingy alley. Instead of dumpsters, trashcans lined the walls. The absence of graffiti and kids shooting up imbued the laneway with a sense of alienness that Sam found disconcerting. She tensed, expecting a trap or some unseen assailant.

Years of off-world missions together in hostile environments had attuned her sense to that of her teammates, and it was clear that Daniel was having a similar reaction. They'd almost reached the end of the alley when he laughed softly. “Kind of a sad testimony to our future, isn't it?”

She smiled. “Feeling nostalgic?”

“Not really. I mean, I've never lived in this time, so there's nothing for me to be pining for. I laving said that, I could think of worse places to be marooned than 1947.”

Daniel was favoring his leg, which prompted Sam to ask, “How's the wound?”

“Fine.”

The reply was too fast for Sam's liking, but she'd seen the injury for herself, and seen him down the antibiotics. There was no telltale damp patch on his jeans. It probably just hurt like hell.

They reached the end of the alleyway. Checking her watch, which she'd set to match that of the diner's clock, Sam glanced back the way they had come. Several sets of steps offered dark comers where they could remain out of sight until—

A motorcyclist zipped passed them along the road—and ploughed directly into the side of a pickup truck piled high with bales of hay.

Although Sam had been expecting the accident, the impact still made her wince. The bike rider, a soldier in standard issue drab, had swerved at the last minute, but, unable to avoid the open tailgate of the pickup, was tossed onto the road while his bike slid with a screech of metal on concrete into a nearby Barber's pole.

The driver of the battered pickup braked sharply, looked around, and unable to see behind him, stared in alarm at Sam and Daniel, who were running to the rider's aid. A half dozen men, two wearing aprons and a third with a large white cape flapping around his neck rushed out of the Barber's shop. “I'll call Glenn!” one of the barbers announced, and hurried back inside.

The bike rider's arm and face were badly grazed, but more importantly, his leather flying helmet had offered no protection against the impact and subsequent fall. His face was covered in blood and he was lying prone on the ground, semi-lucid.

“Oh, heck!”

Sam glanced up to see the shocked face of the young driver.

The barbershop patrons were also crowding around. “I need a

towel to stop the bleeding,” she announced, keeping her voice authoritative and assured. The second barber, still with scissors and comb in hand, also hurried back to the shop, while more people emerged from the surrounding stores and gathered around them. Daniel made it known to anyone who asked, that Sam was a military nurse.

Checking his pulse, Sam cautioned the bike rider, “Don't move, okay?” She gently felt his neck vertebrae, before moving his head to one side. He was young, no more than early-twenties, but his neck and shoulder blades were ridged with scars—shrapnel wounds by the look and feel of it.

“How...how is he?”

“Will he be all right?”

Daniel opened his arms wide, to prevent the onlookers crowding too close. “Okay, everyone, how about we move back and give them some air.”

Although there was a reasonable amount of blood, it was typical of a superficial head wound and what looked to be a broken nose. When the bike rider opened his eyes, his pupils dilated instantly in response to the glare from the late afternoon sun. He was a tough kid; he'd be okay, but Sam wasn't about to give anyone that reassurance—just the opposite. “His neck's not broken but he may have a fractured skull. He's concussed at the very least,” she reported. “I need that towel—fast. I have to stop the bleeding.”

A siren cut through the mumbled words of encouragement. One of the barbers repeated to everyone what Daniel had told him, that the lady was a military nurse from the base. As planned, Daniel quietly blended into the back of the crowd. Once he was certain Sam had her ride, he and O'Neill would return to the jumper and wait for her signal.

The ambulance was a heavy black vehicle that obviously did double-duty as a hearse. While practical, it couldn't have been too inspiring for accident victims. The young driver, whom Teal'c had identified as Glenn Dennis, hurried out with a First Aid kit in hand, but seeing Sam was already attending to the victim, he turned and opened the rear of the ambulance-come-hearse and pulled out a wood and canvas stretcher.

“I need to keep the pressure on this towel to stop the bleeding,” Sam announced when the driver laid out the stretcher beside them.

“I'm okay,” the rider objected, trying to sit.

“No, you're not,” Sam scolded, pushing him down. “If you try to get up, you could...cause a lot of damage to yourself.”

“Here.” The barber gestured for one of the other men to help. “We'll lift him on.”

“Careful,” Sam cautioned. “It's important to keep him as still as possible.”

The rider was still trying to object, but someone shushed him. “Do as the nurse says, kid.”

Sam frowned and shook her head when he was in the vehicle. “I'm really worried about his head wound.”

“Can you come to the base with him, ma'am?” Dennis asked, securing the stretcher. “I can give you a ride back into town, later, when he's been seen to.”

Stepping up into the cramped rear of the ambulance, Sam smiled gratefully. “That's okay. I'm due to report back there this evening, anyway.”

Dennis nodded gratefully, closed the door behind them, then retrieving his First Aid kit, climbed back into the driver's seat. “It was swell of you to stop and help, Miss. I can patch up a few cuts and splint a leg, but having a nurse right there, well, that sure was lucky.”

“Yeah.” Sam smiled at him in the rearview mirror. “Lucky.” She turned her smile to the rider and added truthfully, “You'll be fine. You've got a tough head.”

“Shoulda seen that truck, though,” he groaned. “Sun was in my eyes, I guess.”

The inside of the ambulance was redolent of embalming fluids, tobacco and engine oil. Dennis had the front windows open to offer a little ventilation, but Sam suspected that most of his patients probably passed out from heat exhaustion. She caught sight of Daniel nodding to her from the entrance of the alleyway, then turned her attention back to the soldier, who now seemed more concerned about the fate of his bike than his injuries.

The base was only a few minutes away. Alerted to the arriving ambulance, according to Teal'c, the barrier should have been raised and the ambulance waved through. However, that was not the case. Instead, both gates were closed and the MPs on duty held up their hands for Dennis to stop, blocking Sam's only chance of entering the base to locate An.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Heya, Johnny, What'll it be? Got some nice pecan pie,” Dorothy asked the new arrivals. She shot Jack a smile when he pulled out a crumpled ten-dollar bill to pay for their meals.

Jack eased himself onto one of the blue vinyl stools. “I'll try some of that pic. Another coffee, too.”

“Coffee and pie,” Brazel drawled.

McBoyle ordered the same, sat two stools away from Jack and turning to face Brazel, pulled out a spiral notepad and pencil. “Okay, Marc,” he said, licking the end of the pencil, “now take it from the top. Tell me a little about who you are and exactly what you saw, all right?”

The pie, complete with a massive artery-clogging dollop of yellow cream, appeared in front of Jack. He opened the newspaper and pretended to read an article about Stalin's denouncement of the Marshall Plan.

“I'm a foreman at Foster Ranch,” Brazel began. “Dee—that's my neighbor's boy—'n me were up at the Hines pasture and we saw all this real strange wreckage, like from a plane crash or somethin'. I've found stuff before, you know, those weather balloons the Army are always testing, but nothing like this. Hell, the sheep point blank refuse to cross the pasture to get to the watering station. Dunno what I'm gonna do about them. They're not gonna last in this heat without water. I'm just trying to do my civic duty and all I want is someone to get out there and clean it up.”

The arrival of the coffee gave McBoyle the opportunity to interrupt. “I got all that. What happened next?”

Brazel gulped down a few burning mouthfuls, then picked up his fork and stabbed the pecan pie with more force than it really deserved. “I dragged some of the bigger pieces into one of the sheds. Took Dee home and showed Floyd and Loretta some of the smaller stuff.”

“Floyd and Loretta Proctor? Dee's parents?”

“Yeah. They reckoned maybe I might get a reward for reporting it. Huh.” Brazel snorted and shoveled pie into his mouth. “Some reward. Next day I was out there and saw these buzzards circling around about two, maybe three miles east.”

“East of the crash site,” McBoyle confirmed, scribbling on his pad.

“Figured it was a couple of sheep.” He washed down the pie with the rest of the coffee, and held the cup out to Doris for a refill. “I saddled up and rode over to the bluff. Something dead all right, something that stunk real bad. I got off and climbed up to take a look. And that's when I saw 'em. These three little people, like. But they weren't human, no sir, they was nothing like a human.” Brazel shoved the now empty plate away. “Frank Joyce, he dunno nothing.”

“Frank, from radio station KGFL?”

“He told me he didn't buy it, and that the bodies are probably monkeys or chimps from some Air Force experimental rocket or something. I told him and I'm telling you. They're not monkeys, God dammit. They're not human!”

“Okay, Marc, calm down. I believe you, all right?”

Somewhat mollified, Brazel hunkered over his coffee. “Anyways, I filled a couple of cardboard boxes with parts from their spaceship, I reckon, and brought it in to show Sheriff Wilcox. Major Marcel and Captain Cavitt and me drove back out there night before last. We ate cold beans and spent the night in a bunkhouse 'bout three miles from Hines pasture, where the wreckage is. Next morning, Cavitt and me rode up there while Marcel drove in his Carryall. He said it himself; the stuff was “not from this earth.” You ask him; that's his exact words. They was loading up the Carryall when Walt and Judd turn up.”

“Walt Whitmore, owner of radio station KGFL?”

Marcel downed the coffee in one go and then wiped his face on the back of a grubby sleeve. “Yeah. He's got more sense than Frank. Walt drove me back to town and I spent last night in his house. Now the Sheriff's telling me I gotta shut up and say nothing to nobody 'coz the FBI don't like it. I can't even get back to the ranch 'coz the military are telling me the place is off limits! My own goddamned place!”

Eyes squinting against the low sun, he glanced outside and swore. “What in hell is it now?”

Jack glanced at the clock and then turned in his seat. Teal'c's intel was, once again, right on the money.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Holding the sodden towel firmly in place against her patient's head, hoping to hide the fact that his injury was minor, Sam frowned at the approaching MPs. She allowed her dog tags to hang down the front of her blouse. With their rubber silencers removed, they should look enough like their 1947 counterparts for her to get away with the subterfuge if nobody looked too closely.

“Gotta start teaching your boys to look where they're going,” Dennis said to the first MP.

A grizzle-faced sergeant came around to the side of the ambulance and barked at the motorcyclist, “Parker! What the hell did I tell you about keeping your eyes open, boy?” Shaking his head, his eyes dropped to Sam's dog tags. “Got yourself a pretty nurse, though. Guess you ain't so dumb after all.” Turning to the guard box, he yelled, “Open up.”

While Sam was relieved the ruse had worked, given the level of secrecy that had surrounded the Manhattan Project, and the fact that Roswell currently housed the only atom bombs in the world, the lapse in security was alarming. Perhaps 1947 really was, as some historians opined, a brief halcyon moment between WWII and the fledgling Communist paranoia.

Dennis backed the ambulance up to the emergency entrance of the hospital. Parked beside them were three of the window-less boxy military ambulances that had formed part of the convoy that had just passed through town. If Teal'c was right, and so far he had been, then one of these ambulances had carried the surviving Asgard from the primary crash site at the foot of the Capitan Mountains. The others had brought in the remains of the clones from the Corona site.

Two MPs were standing at the back of one ambulance, looking pale and scared and apparently uncaring that a civilian ambulance had just pulled up beside them.

Dennis didn't seem to notice as he came around and opened the rear door. The front gate must have notified someone that they were coming, as two orderlies were waiting to unload the injured motorcyclist.

“Hey, Glenn,” one of them said, offering Sam an appraising look as he climbed into the ambulance. “Gotcha self a new assistant?”

“I'm Lieutenant Carter,” Sam replied stepping outside into the cooler air. “I've just transferred in from Los Alamos.” She glanced across at one of the military ambulances and saw that the doors were open.

The guard snapped to attention. “Yes, ma'am.”

The orderlies lifted out the stretcher carrying the injured Parker, careful not to dislodge the bloodied towel Sam had wadded under this head. She was about to suggest an MRI, remembered that they wouldn't exist for another quarter of a century, and instead said, “He may have a fractured skull and broken nose.” She tried to angle herself so that she could see past the nervous MPs.

Unfortunately, Dennis also was curious. His attempts to peer inside the military ambulance obscured Sam's line of sight and drew unwanted attention from the guards, who eyed Dennis suspiciously. Still, she caught a glimpse of wreckage that was definitely Asgard in origin, and the whiff of something foul, worse even than the odorous mud of Bayou.

Why had Asgard escape pod parts been loaded into an ambulance? Maybe this aspect of the Roswell story was wrong. Maybe these vehicles had all come from the second Corona site where only the deceased Asgard had been found. The smell certainly suggested as much.

The doors were pushed open to an air-conditioned emergency reception room. Sam focused on the bike rider, Parker. Engaging him in conversation was the best way to maintain the illusion she belonged there, and knew exactly where she was going. “How do you feel?”

“I'm okay, ma'am. 'Cept something smells real bad. Is that a sign of concussion?”

The orderlies took him into a larger wardroom, bustling with urgency, while Dennis stopped at the nurse's station to check them in, after which he said something about grabbing himself a Coke from the staff lounge.

Sam was about to follow, hoping the lounge would lead her to the nurses' locker room, when a redheaded captain arrived, surgical mask hanging around his neck, his eyes watering. He barked at the orderlies, “I thought I told you to put him in the next room!” His expression turned even more surly when he noticed Sam. “And what are you doing out of uniform, nurse?”

“Sorry sir,” Sam replied, snapping to attention. “Lieutenant Carter, sir. I was off duty...saw the accident.”

“Well, all right then.” Giving her an appraising look, he added, “That's what we need around here, initiative.”

“Sir?”

“Think you can take notes without puking all over the place, Lieutenant?”

Teal'c had said the autopsy had been abandoned due to the smell. “Yes, sir. Of course.”

“Then get changed and report to Theatre Two. Tell the MPs Captain Haynes told you to let you go on through.”

Bingo. “Yes, sir.”

Sam pushed opened the entryway door and turned left, hoping like hell she was headed in the right direction when she almost bumped into another nurse, a young second lieutenant holding a cloth over her mouth, rushing out of an adjoining examination room. Offering Sam a muted apology, the lieutenant's watering eyes turned wide when she caught sight of Dennis loitering around the emergency entrance, peering through the dingy windows, trying to get a better look inside the military ambulances. “My gosh, Glenn!” Hurrying over to him, she took him by the arm, and urged him away from the glass. “Get out of here or you're going to be in a lot of trouble.”

“What?” His eyes lit in recognition. “Hey Naomi, how's it going. I just stopped for a Coke.”

Shaking her head, the nurse released her grip on Dennis and then hurried down the hall in the opposite direction. Sam followed, hoping they were headed for the same place. The nurse's pace picked up when Haynes stepped out behind them, and bellowed at Dennis, “Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?”

“It looks like you've got a crash.” Dennis sounded startled by the officer's tone.

Sam missed the rest of his reply because she followed the nurse into what thankfully turned out to be the women's locker room. The dark haired lieutenant quickened her pace, and retching, ran into a toilet cubicle.

Using the distraction, Sam quickly opened several wooden lockers before she found one whose contents included a surgical nurses' scrubs. She could hear raised voices outside before Dennis's voice cut through. “Hey, look mister. I'm a civilian and you can't do a damned thing to me.”

“You watch your mouth, boy,” Haynes barked, “or somebody will be picking your bones out of the sand.”

The nurse threw up again. Sam pulled on the smock, making certain she still had ready access to her radio. Someone else from outside the room, someone with a deep-throated Southern twang, had joined the conversation. “Maybe we got some real good dog food here, Captain.”

“Get the son-of-a-bitch outta here.”

The young nurse had stopped heaving. Sam wanted to ask if she was okay, but the captain sounded in no mood for delays. More importantly, Sam might be able to follow him to Theatre Two without having to go searching. She opened the door just in time to see two MPs more or less frog-march Dennis through the doors outside.

The captain, sweat beading his forehead, even in the air conditioning, turned his temper on Sam. “C'mon, hurry up.”

His foul mood, Sam realized, was driven by fear. Fifty feet, two doors and a platoon of armed MPs later they reached an anteroom servicing three operating theatres and a recovery room. The atmosphere was thick with cigarette smoke and barely controlled panic. Something way outside their frame of reference was happening to these men. Hardened by the nightmare of the recent war, they were still struggling to come to grips with a new and shocking reality: extraterrestrials were no longer confined to the realm of pulp science fiction.

Snatches of desperate conversation between officers, doctors, civilians in dark suits and two frantic looking nurses reached her. “...not going to survive for very much longer unless we have some idea...”

“...something toxic in their blood...”

“...threat to the United States...”

“...President Truman flying in tomorrow to brief Senator |  Chavez...”

The captain turned nervous eyes to hers. “Where were you previously stationed, Lieutenant?”

Someone was arguing with a photographer who was point blank refusing to return to the operating theatre, while a harangued looking female lieutenant dressed in a senior nurses' uniform was holding a white-knuckled hand to a black telephone receiver, ordering additional gas masks.

In an attempt to convey a credible mix of professionalism and grave concern, Sam squared her shoulders lifted her chin and replied, “Los Alamos, sir.”

A black-suited man with Brylcreemed hair and acne ravaged cheeks, pushed past the others until he was standing before her. “For how long?” he demanded.

What he was really asking, Sam knew, was, had she been stationed at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project? If so, it would imply she'd seen the nuclear accidents that had occurred during the development of Fat Man and Little Boy. And just as importantly, that she knew how to keep her mouth shut. “Almost four years, sir.”

A second, black suited man fixed his gaze on her, speaking around a lighted cigarette dangling from his mouth. “You ever tell anyone what you see inside here, you won't like what happens.” A blue-tined haze of tobacco smoke and fedora perched low over his brow combined to obscure his face, but something about him pricked Sam's nerves. “That's a direct order from President Truman.”

Nodding, she said a silent prayer of thanks that O'Neill wasn't here; otherwise he'd have these two guys pegged as Agent J and Agent K. “I understand, sir.”

“Take a deep breath, now,” Haynes warned her in a slightly more sympathetic tone. “What you're gonna see, well, it's not of this Earth.”

Without waiting for her reaction to that announcement, he nodded to the middle-aged MPs standing outside doors labeled 'Operating Theatre Two', and sucking in a lungful of nicotine-tainted air, reached for the handle.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“Ah...choo!”

“Gesundheit.”

Vala turned to see Howard coming down the basement steps, Mitchell right behind him carrying a midsized crate he referred to as a tea chest.

They had been holed up in his stuffy old cellar for almost a week now, and being the good little military automaton he could be when he was feeling pigheaded, Mitchell had refused to allow them to go out, even at night, in case they messed up Carter's precious timeline. “Excuse me?” she said.

“It means 'bless you'.” Howard glanced back at Mitchell and then stepped into the basement and moved aside several more tea chests to make way for the new arrival.

“Why would I need to be blessed just because I sneezed?” Vala really didn't much care, but she was bored out of her mind since Howard didn't appear to own useful things like the Internet or television. Even radio broadcasts were yet to be commercialized, so she'd learned, which meant they'd been subjected to a unique form of torture. Mother Lovecraft owned a device called a Victrola, and apparently only one record—which she played obsessively. If Vala had to listen one more time to Handel's choral music from 29 June 1888 at The Crystal Palace in London, she was going to go upstairs and do some serious damage.

“It's German,” Howard explained, shuffling around a mostly empty coal bin, trying not to get his polished shoes grubby. “In the old days, some people believed that your soul left your body when you sneezed. The blessing is to protect you until it returns.”

Mitchell, who was watching his footing as he negotiated the last steps, cursed when a large black insect scurried across his foot. “Damned 'roaches.”

“Fascinating.” Vala ducked beneath a low beam—her head had acquired several painful bumps before she'd learned to adjust to the height—and batted away a newly formed cobweb. Not that you could tell for certain because the entire room was held together by cobwebs, this one just happened to have an inhabitant—and climbed over a second half filled coal bin in order to reach them. “Did you know that the Egyptians pulled people's brains out through their nose? That was Osiris's idea by the way. Thought it was a huge joke when she'd convinced her followers that it was their ticket to the afterlife.”

The miserable pool of light offered by the single naked bulb failed to hide Howard's reaction to that piece of information. During their first days down here in this coffin-sized hole, he'd disputed her take on Egyptian mythology until he'd come to understand that her experiences had been firsthand—well, as first hand as Goa'uld memories could be.

Qetesh had aligned herself with her father, Ra, mostly in an effort to curry favor while she schemed to overthrow him and acquire his armies. Unfortunately for Qetesh, O'Neill had bumped off Ra at a singularly inopportune moment. Rather than aiding Qetesh by creating a power vacuum, the assassination had in fact placed her in a very vulnerable position. She'd barely managed to escape to a backwater section of the galaxy, licking her wounds and wondering exactly how and why things had gone so terribly wrong.

Mitchell lowered the tea chest and pulled out a knife to lever off the lid. “So.” Vala rubbed her hands together in anticipation. “What goodies are inside this one?”

Despite her feigned enthusiasm, anticipation was the last thing she really felt right now, having been subjected to several such openings of chests during the past week. Howard's grandfather, Whipple Van Buren, had, it seemed, been filthy rich when he'd died. A few greedy moneylenders called bankers and some atrocious mismanagement of the family assets had resulted in Howard and his mother being fleeced of anything of real value. All they'd managed to bring along were several tea chests filled with—as far as Vala could tell—utterly useless junk.

The lid came away with a splintery crack.

“It was your stories about Egypt that made me realize the connection, you see,” Howard explained, reaching into the chest and tugging out handfuls of straw.

“Connection?” Mitchell asked skeptically.

“Which particular stories?” Vala ignored the look of rebuke she knew—without even looking at him—that Mitchell was giving her. They were stuck here, and she'd had to do something to entertain herself. At least Howard appreciated her tales, even if at first he'd had difficulty buying them.

“All of them. My grandfather traveled to Egypt, you see. He amassed quite an impressive collection of old manuscripts and artifacts. The bank took most anything of value, of course, but this one box... Well, it's...” He paused and edged away from the chest. “I...I should warn you, I suppose.”

“About what?” Mitchell reached into the chest for another fist full of straw.

“Wait!” Howard grasped Mitchell's arm, then bit his lip and chewed nervously. “Grandfather was involved in... To be frank, I'm not entirely certain, except that he was a—” his voice fell to a conspiratorial whisper—”high ranking Mason.”

“Surely not!” Vala replied in an equally conspiratorial tone. Of course, she had absolutely no idea what that was supposed to mean, but clearly it was something dire. She straightened up and looked at Mitchell, and asked in a normal voice. “What's a Mason, anyway?”

“Shhhl” Howard said, looking over his shoulder. He turned back to them and continued in a hushed and nervous tone—for no reason Vala could ascertain, because old mother Lovecraft was out for the day. “The night before Grandfather died,” the young man explained, “we were all at home together. We'd been planning to attend a concert, but it was snowing too heavily. It was around nine o'clock, I suppose, when I heard a peculiar hissing and thumping coming from the attic. I looked up and said, 'Hey, what's that?' and jumped up to go and investigate. Grandfather grabbed me by the arm and said, 'Nothing! Pay it no mind, lad, hear?' Well, gosh, I would have, but...his face.”

Howard looked like he was about to burst into tears—again.

Vala sighed. All the young man ever needed to be pulled out of these depressive funks, however, was a hug and a reassuring smile. “Go on, Howard. It's all right, you can tell us. We're you're friends, right?” She ignored Mitchell's rolled eyes and put her arm around the boy.

With a wary eye on the tea chest, Howard continued. “The stark terror on Grandfather's face was something to behold. I didn't think he was frightened of anything, until then, but that night... He was mortified. I could see it in his eyes. There was something dark and terrible in the attic to which he would not give a name—at least, not to me.”

Vala smiled stoically. Howard seemed to have a great need to embellish his stories with lengthy strings of descriptives presumably designed to add a weighty horror to his tales.

“When Mama retired later that evening, Grandfather called me close...”

She glanced at Mitchell whose eyes were already glazing over, as Howard continued his tale, which now seemed to involve reliving much of his grandfather's adventures in Egypt. And it took a while. Even Vala was starting to formulate excuses to leave the basement, having long since stopped paying attention to what Howard was saying, when the boy finally mentioned something about a set of secret tunnels beneath the Giza plateau, leading to the tomb of Osiris.

“Whoa!” Mitchell said. He'd apparently been paying more attention that Vala. “Osiris's tomb wasn't found until the Steward expedition, and it wasn't found near Giza.”

Well, that was news. Qetesh had often wondered what had become of her one time sister and mortal enemy. “Really?” Vala said. “How do you know?”

“It's all right there in SG-1 's files. And more to the point,” Mitchell turned to Howard, “Those tunnels weren't found until 1998.”

“That was in SG-l's files?”

“Daniel Jackson's reports.”

“You actually read those things?” Vala was truly amazed. “I thought they were doorsteps.”

“That's doorstops.”

Howard stared at Mitchell wide-eyed. “I think...” He gulped loudly. “I can't be sure. Grandfather wouldn't go into much detail, so I think it had something to do with the Masons, but in any event, he told me that instead of finding Osiris's tomb, the guides led him to a portal connecting our world to another world, where jackal headed humans roamed the land and unspeakable horrors took place.”

Rigid with surprise, Mitchell shook his head in disbelief. “Your grandfather found the Stargate?”

Folding her arms and feeling more than a little put out, Vala punched Mitchell on the arm. “And you tell me off for telling the boy anything that might mess up history? First of all you blab about the tunnels in 1998, and now you tell him all about the Stargate.”

Eyes darting between them, Howard added, “Grandfather didn't mention anything about a star gate. He saw only a great metallic rim capped by stone. It was not far underground, he said, but that he feared a cave-in would bury all of them at any moment. A German expedition had been in the tunnels several years earlier, and removed the device that allowed one to travel through the ring to this dark and evil realm.”

Mitchell nodded thoughtfully. “That tracks. As far as we know the DHD was taken to Germany in the late 1800s and was then nabbed by the Russians at the end of World War II.”

“World War II?” Howard asked, eyes rounded with curiosity.

“Another planet.” Mitchell explained glibly, in an impressive display of quick thinking. “Don't worry about it.”

“But you said the Russians took it from Germany. How could your world wars be on another planet if they're Russian and German?”

Get out of that one without making things worse, Colonel Smarty Trousers, Vala thought silently, amused by Mitchell's stony look. He didn't deserve rescuing, but she was feeling generous. Turning to Howard, she said, “All sorts of people have gone through the magical ring your grandfather found to this 'dark and evil realm'. German, Russian, Klingon...”

“Klingons aren't real, Vala,” Mitchell pointed out. Apparently he didn't appreciate her help nearly as much as he should have.

“So you say,” she scoffed and then turned back to Howard. “The point is, you promised to keep everything a secret, remember?”

Howard nodded eagerly. “I remember.”

Satisfied Howard was diverted from asking too closely about the many world wars Earth seemed to inflict upon itself—so many they'd taken to numbering them—she turned back to Mitchell, “What this means is that the Stargate Howard's grandfather found is presumably somewhat more accessible than the one sitting down in Antarctica.”

“There's a second portal to this dark realm hidden in Antarctica?” Howard gasped.

“A whole city, in fact,” Val elaborated. “Built by the Ancients. Except it's gone, now, to Atlantis. Anyway, be that as it may be, as I understand it, the DHD there has finally run out of power, and the missing DHD in Egypt could be a bit of a problem. So,” she gave the tea chest a gentle kick, “what's in the box?”

“I was getting to that.” The lip-biting thing started up again before Howard picked up his tale. “Grandfather died that very same night. The doctor told us he'd had a stroke, but I overheard the morticians talking. One of them said that in all of his years, he'd never seen such a look of horror on a man's face.” Howard's eyes began watering up, and his bottom lip began to tremble.

“Was it something the Masons did?”

The young man shook his head. “I sneaked up to his room. While the mortician was preparing Grandfather for burial.”

“And...” Vala coaxed, fearing he would break down completely before finishing his story.

“He saw something truly beyond the imagination of any sane man.”

“Which was...?”

“He was working on Grandfather's face. Trying to soften his expression for the viewing, I suppose, by massaging his face muscles into a different position. When he opened Grandfather's mouth he found...”

“What?” Mitchell demanded impatiently, almost destroying all Vala's hard work getting the story from him.

Howard jumped in fright. “A small winged dragon wedged inside his throat!”

Although a bit of an anticlimax, given the build up, it prompted Vala into releasing the boy and scrambling for her zat gun.

Mitchell was faster—only because he was actually carrying his weapon—and immediately brought it to bear. “Okay, son, exactly what is in the box?”

Alarmed, Howard's eyes grew as large as saucers and he stumbled back away from the chest until he was hard pressed against a stack of barrels. Rather than answer the question, though, he determinedly continued on with the story.

“After a few days, a terrible smell came from the attic. I plucked up the courage to go and see for myself, and found a small jar on the floor, surrounded by a puddle of foul smelling fluid.”

Val had heard of similar containers and so had Mitchell, it seemed, because he had lowered his weapon. “Canopic jar,” he said. “That's how Jackson had a run in with Osiris.”

“You mean Osiris was stuffed in a jar all that time?” Vala grinned. “Oh, he would have loathed that! How wonderful.”

“She.”

“What do you mean, 'she'?”

“Osiris was a 'she'.”

“Took a female host, did he? Well, I suppose I should have expected that.” Vala turned to Howard and treated him to a reassuring smile. “Do you think we could maybe skip all this utterly fascinating ancient history and get to the part where you tell us there's something more interesting in that tea chest than a broken Canopic jar?”

The boy stared unblinking at the chest. “I...I packed some other things that I found nearby.”

Vala stepped closer to the chest. She studied it for a moment and then turned to Mitchell who had, without prompting, raised his weapon again.

“You will only zat me once if I do happen to encounter a live Goa'uld, won't you?”

Mitchell hesitated for a teasingly long time before he grinned and nodded. “Only once.”

Cringing, she stepped forward, plunged her hand into the straw. She felt something metallic, which was a relief. She wasn't sure what she would have done had it wrapped around something slimy. Vala withdrew the item and held it up for I Mitchell and Howard to see.

It was Herbert George's gold handcuff.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Daniel wasn't entirely happy leaving Sam to enter the base alone, but he knew there was nothing more he could do. And it wasn't like she was breaking into an Ori ship. This was Earth and the only alien elements were that of a different generation.

They'd agreed to maintain radio silence once Sam was in the ambulance. Daniel had edged away from the crowd and backed into the deserted lane heavily shadowed by the setting sun. Once safely out of earshot, he checked in with Teal'c, who confirmed that after a brief delay, Sam had made it through to the base. Walking to the entrance of the alleyway he quickly made his way back along the road. The military were currently engaged in a frantic process of disinformation and cover up, which meant that any minute—

A Buick pulled up in front of the diner and a heavyset, gray haired man climbed out. Red faced and glowering, he slammed the car door shut, pulled on a cream Stetson and strode into the diner.

Daniel quickened his pace, reaching the door just in time to hear the new arrival, presumably Walt Whitmore, the owner of the local radio station KGFL, announce, “C'mon Marc, we'd best get you out of here.”

An hour and a half earlier Whitmore had—if Teal'c's information was reliable—been threatened with the loss of his license if he broadcast his interview with Brazel or mentioned the discovery of the wreckage or bodies. In a monumental blunder, the same authorities—the FBI—would fail to stop the printing of the story the following morning in the Roswell Daily Record. That headline would, in the years to come, position Roswell as the Mecca for UFO buffs and conspiracy theorists, the world over.

Daniel followed Whitmore into the diner. Jack was already at the counter trying to pay his tab. His request was lost amid a growing argument between Whitmore and John McBoyle, the reporter from the competing radio station, KSWS.

“Now hold on there a minute, Walt,” McBoyle objected, standing between him and Brazel. “Unless you've got some sort of exclusive with Marc, here, I've got every right to interview him.”

“It ain't me saying you don't got the right, Johnny,” Whitmore responded. “Why don't you go back to the station and ask Lydia what the goddamned FBI did when she tried to put the story out on the wire services? Same as they did to me.” He pulled off his hat and slammed it furiously onto the counter. “They threatened to revoke my license, can you believe that?”

“Lydia Sleppy?” McBoyle stared in disbelief over Whitmore's shoulder. “Hold on a sec. What's going on outside?”

Daniel and Jack both turned and looked. An army truck and a jeep had pulled up at the curb and were disgorging eight or nine MPs. Jack exchanged looks with him, and, with a nod of agreement, indicated they should leave by the side exit.

“Hey, officers,” the waitress declared when a lieutenant and a sergeant strode into the diner, helmets pulled low over the faces. “We don't want no trouble here.”

Sidling toward the rear, Jack tried the side door and found it locked. Seemed the fire regulations of 1947 didn't require fire exits to be actual exits. The remaining MPs were piling in through the front door. Daniel glanced behind them. The cook, Casey, was still flipping burgers like nothing was happening, while the waitress, Dorothy, was wiping her hands on a dishrag as she walked out from behind the counter.

“I told you before we ain't closing down at nine just 'cause you got some silly curfew regulations at the base. I got truckers coming through at all hours and they rely on gettin' a decent meal here.”

And that was when Daniel realized that aside from himself, Jack, Brazel and the reporters, the diner was empty of patrons. The MPs seemed to realize that at the same moment, because two of them herded Marc Brazel politely, but insistently, toward the front door. Another two men flanked Whitmore and McBoyle.

The MP lieutenant turned to Jack and Daniel. “Hey, you two.”

“You can't treat me like this!” Whitmore objected. “I'm the owner—”

Ignoring Daniel and Jack for the moment, the lieutenant whipped out his nightstick and slammed it on the counter. “Yesirree, I can. You was warned to keep your goddamned mouth shut.” The nightstick swung around until it was directly under Brazel's nose. “And so was you. All this talk about little green men, huh.”

“They weren't green, ya big ape,” Brazel said gamely. “They was gray!”

Whitmore continued to object to the military's shabby treatment of upstanding citizens who were just doing their civic duty. Something about the Constitution and the First Amendment were thrown in for good measure, but Daniel couldn't hear much more because by then they were outside and the radio station owner was being manhandled into the back of the truck, along with McBoyle and Brazel.

“You.” The lieutenant's nightstick swung around in an arc. He stabbed it in Daniel and Jack's direction as he approached them.

“Who? Us?” Jack said, adopting a well-practiced expression of cluelessness that worked so rarely, Daniel wondered why he bothered to try it on anyone. “Names!”

Jack smiled disarmingly. “Ah...names. Mulder and Scully.”

“Where do you live?”

“Colorado,” Daniel replied, before Jack could get too carried away. “We're just passing through town, lieutenant.”

“Where ya headed?”

“New York,” Daniel said without thinking.

“Kinda taking the scenic route, ain't, ya?”

“But there's so much to see,” Jack said. “Little green men, and flying saucers... Oh, and arresting innocent citizens eating in a diner.”

“Jack]” Daniel hissed in warning, but it was too late. The damage was done.

The MP's eyes narrowed dangerously. “Wise guy, huh?' the lieutenant grabbed Jack by the arm. “Outside. The both of you. You're coming, too.”

Daniel felt the brief moment of tension before Jack allowed himself to be pushed out the door. Raising his hands in surrender, Daniel followed, squinting against the last blazing rays of the sunset. He wasn't worried about a little shoving around, but he was concerned that it could reveal their zat guns and radios.

Although this particular scene was absent from Teal'c's prediction of what to expect, he had mentioned there'd been several accounts of military 'debriefing' that had involved everything from the invocation of patriotic duty to outright threats on family members.

Of course, if Jack had just kept his big mouth shut...

Still, he doubted the MPs would bother to search them. Right now, the best thing was to play along.

“If nothing else,” Jack muttered to Daniel, “this'll save us a three-mile hike back to the jumper.”

“Why did you have to say anything at all?” he hissed in a low voice.

“I hate MPs.” Even as he spoke, Jack was edging away from the truck so that the sun was in the eyes of the MPs.

“You're a general, Jack.”

“So? It's the whole tyrannical power-mongering thing they've got going.”

“Pat 'em down, corporal,” the lieutenant ordered. “I don't like the look of these two... itinerants.”

Okay, so much for the non-confrontational theory. Before Daniel had a chance to object, one of the MPs grabbed his arms from behind and shoved them into the air. The lieutenant's eyes zeroed in on the zat.

And that's when Jack decided to shoot everybody.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The doors burst outward, and two officers, a brigadier general and a major, staggered out, coughing and gagging. Sam's olfactory nerves had been assaulted before, but not like this. Even Bayou hadn't smelled this bad. The stench tore through her sinuses and down into the back of her throat, along her Eustachian tubes and into her ears and eyes, overwhelming all of her other senses and triggering a reaction much like tear gas. Yet even through watering eyes she was able to make out the decaying corpses of four Asgard lying on stainless steel tables. A fifth body lay on a separate table with its chest cracked open. It reminded Sam of the specimen that Heimdall had been researching; an Asgard ancestor, except that its features were slightly more human. Sam guessed the odor was coming from the green, frothy fluid bubbling out of its chest cavity.

Three figures dressed in surgeon's gowns were shaking their heads and motioning with their hands for Haynes to get out of the room.

“This is crazy,” declared one of the surgeons, pushing open the main doors to the theater. Through a second entrance two soldiers wearing gas masks arrived dragging steaming cardboard boxes of dry ice.

“We have no idea what this stuff could be doing to us,” a second surgeon added between wracking coughs. “I'm ordering the autopsy abandoned.”

The captain wasted no time in following the doctors outside. Sam brought up the rear, wiping the water pouring from her eyes with the flap of her gown. It took several seconds of everyone coughing and sneezing and blinking furiously before she realized that Agents J and K—Cancer Man and Brylcreem—were demanding answers.

“What's going on in there, General?” Cancer Man stubbed his cigarette on the linoleum floor, pulled a crumpled packet from his pocket and immediately lit another.

“I've ordered all of the remains packed in dry ice,” replied Surgeon Number One. “We can't continue.”

Brylcreem sneered at the general. “Twining, your orders were to-”

“I don't give a rat's ass what you think my orders are.” Twining snapped. He wasn't about to take any crap from a couple of government agents, Sam knew. Chief of the Materiel Command for the USAF, Twining was also in charge of the high performance aircraft development at Alamogordo, where Werner von Braun was currently working. “Dr. Johnson here is right,” he added in a measured tone. “Nobody can stand that awful stench for very long.”

Positioning himself well inside the General's personal space, Cancer Man's tone turned ugly. “I want answers, General, and if you're not man enough to take a little bad smell—”

“It's not the smell, Agent, and wipe that supercilious scowl off your face—or I will.”

The surgeon, Johnson, pulled off his rubber gloves and tugged down his mask to reveal a pencil thin moustache. “The body of the one that died on the way here is giving off some sort of noxious gas. Possibly poisonous. You want to go in there, Agent, be my guest, but I'll be ordering your immediate quarantine until I know exactly what that gas is. Suit yourself, of course, but since we don't have proper containment facilities, that will mean keeping you in there with the bodies until we can ship them out.”

Brylcreem turned his irritated glare on Johnson. “You'd better not let the survivors die.”

“And exactly how do you expect us to achieve that? No one in this room has any experience with this sort of thing, and they're in bad shape.”

“There were survivors?” Blurting that out was a risk, Sam knew, but it paid off when several sets of eyes turned in her direction.

“Who the hell are you?” the General demanded.

“Lieutenant Carter just transferred here from Los Alamos,” Captain Haynes explained in a proprietary manner.

Sam stood to attention with parade ground precision and rattled off her name and rank, delighted that Haynes was aiding her deception. '“I'll volunteer to assist in any way I can, General.” Ignoring the tears still streaming down her cheeks, she added, “I've had experience dealing with unusual...burns, sir.” Which was what the public were informed had happened to the scientists who'd died of radiation poisoning during the development of the first A bombs. “I know my patriotic duty.”

As hackneyed as it sounded to her ears, it was precisely what the men in this room wanted—needed—to hear right now. The stench of corrupted Asgard flesh and whatever that green fluid was, could not overpower the more ingrained stench of their fear and avarice.

“Well? What are you waiting for, Captain?” Cancer Man demanded. “We want the survivors transported to New York, and we want them alive.”

Ignoring Sam, who, along with Dr. Johnson was already being herded toward the recovery room, Twining turned his glare on Cancer Man, while he addressed Haynes. “Captain, I want every piece of those flying saucers that you and Marcel brought in, and the bodies, crated and flown back to Wright Field first thing tomorrow morning.”

Glancing over her shoulder, Sam saw Cancer Man stab a finger at Twining's chest. “General, I've already made it very clear that President Truman wants it all packed up and flown to—”

“Get your hand off me. My orders are also from the President. Wright AFB was set up specifically for this kind of emergency.”

The rest of the argument was lost to Sam when Johnson closed the door behind them, but it had already provided her with a chilling clarity. She now understood why the Air Force and Pentagon had no record of the Roswell crash. In less than three weeks President Truman would sign the National Security Act into law, creating the CIA, DOD, Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Security Council, and the NID. A month later, the Army Air Force and sections of the Navy would become a separate entity known as the US Air Force, and somewhere in an ill-defined moment, the Cold War would begin. Sam's security clearance had given her unlimited access to files the Pentagon had hidden, even from itself, but this was one mystery that they'd never been fully able to crack.

And here she was, right here, right now, standing in the middle of a what would prove to be the trigger point of a conspiracy fifty years in the making. There would be no dividing the spoils. Every man here was positioning himself to grab everything for whatever nascent agency had claimed his loyalty.

It was also clear that even now, a half-century before the NID would wreak havoc on the future with their meddling, military personnel had set up camp with them, lured, no doubt, by the black money that would soon be shoveled by the truckload into their coffers. They must have laughed their collective heads off when the Air Force was then lumbered with the task of investigating UFO phenomena in projects that would bear the names Blue Book Grudge and Sign.

“Lieutenant,” Dr. Johnson said to her as they walked across the green-walled recovery room, “we don't know the first thing about these...beings. Best we can do is make them as comfortable as possible.”

Two edgy-looking MPs were guarding a screened-off partition in the room. At Haynes's signal, one of the MPs moved the screen aside to reveal a door—which opened just as he was reaching for the handle.

A middle-aged nurse rushed out, “Sir!” She pulled up short. “I'm sorry but I think one of them just died.”

The expression on her face was more relief than concern, something that Johnson also noticed because he snapped, “Get out of here.”

Sam strode into the room behind him. Two Asgard were lying on separate beds. One of them was Loki.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Jack was in no mood to mess about. Sitting down for the last few hours had taken the edge off the pain in his chest. Being jerked around, literally, by a lieutenant with delusions of self-importance had started up the whole woodpecker thing again, which pissed him off no end.

The lieutenant was still fumbling around trying to draw his weapon when Jack zatted him, then the three MPs went down before any of them had even thought about going for their guns. Daniel had simultaneously taken out another three before the last pair, whose cumulative age still put them at least fifteen years younger than Jack, raised their hands and began backing away. With a muttered apology, Daniel zatted one while Jack took out the second.

“What's going on?” Whitmore poked his head out of the back of the truck and received a zat blast for his trouble.

Collecting two of the MPs' white helmets on the way, Daniel made for the driver's side of the lieutenant's jeep. Brazel and the reporter, McBoyle, had wisely decided to keep their noses behind the khaki flap of the truck, while the waitress, Dorothy, stood at the entrance with her hands on her hips popping gum. Inside, Casey, cigarette dangling from his mouth, was still calmly flipping burgers.

Jack pulled a fifty from his pocket, slapped it on the dusty bonnet of the truck, and eased into the passenger side of the jeep. “Sorry about the mess,” he called to her. “They'll wake up in a few minutes. Maybe you can give 'em a coffee.” It wouldn't do a thing for their post zat headaches but it might take the edge off what was bound to be some ugly dispositions.

The helmet fit like a glove but the canvas and metal seat wasn't exactly cushioned. Jack clung to his ribs as Daniel crunched the gears, and, reversing around the MPs—two of whom were already showing signs of coming around—pulled out of the parking space and took off up the street in the opposite direction of the base.

The entire incident had taken forty-five seconds, tops. Too fast for the half dozen people scattered up and down the street to do more than stand with their mouths agape. Daniel reduced their speed about six blocks later, to turn the corner. In the growing twilight, the white helmets should allow them to pass a cursory inspection from a general public familiar with the comings and goings of base personnel. That and the fact that they were currently headed north out of town should throw off the scent long enough for them to circle back and park someplace near the jumper.

Jack kept an eye behind them, happy to note that no one seemed to be following, but he could have done without the crunching of gears. The damned jeep had no shock absorbers, either, which was not making for a pleasant ride.

“Ah, where are the headlights on this thing?” Daniel enquired.

“What for?” The sun was just now setting. They had a few minutes before they needed lights.

“Just in case.”

“In case of what?”

“We hit a road block.” Daniel eased in the clutch and shifted down to second gear.

Turning forward Jack yelled, “Whoa!” Directly ahead of them was a jeep with two MPs seated up front, tagging a large flatbed truck covered in a patchwork of tarpaulins and camouflage, traveling at about ten miles an hour.

The guys in the jeep ahead reacted to their arrival with barely a glance. Although Jack would have liked the convoy to be moving with a little more speed, it was the perfect setup. When Lieutenant Quickdraw reported the attack, the last place anyone would be looking for a stolen jeep would be in a military convoy headed for the base.

“Teal'c,” Jack called into his radio. “What's happening?”

“There is little further to report, O'Neill.”

Jack glanced at Daniel. “Little further?”

“Yeah, well you were too busy shooting everyone before I could tell you that Sam made it inside okay.”

Daniel went on to explain what Carter had in mind about going back in time via Atlantis. As Plan Bs went it sounded doable, especially since it contained several variations, although he wasn't too thrilled with the idea of a second excursion to Proclarush Taonas. He really, really didn't like lava.

Then there was the small, but delightfully convenient fact that an Asgard escape pod sat on an Army flatbed less than one hundred feet in front of them.

“Teal'c, was there any mention of MPs being, you know, zatted, in any of those tabloids?”

“There was not, O'Neill.”

“Figured as much. Okay, well. Guess it doesn't matter now.” Jack considered their next move. It was getting dark, fast, and there was a reasonable chance that they could follow the flatbed right into the base without being noticed, but then they'd have to peel off and head for the jumper. Better to lose the convoy through one of the wide turns the road took just before it reached the base.

“Found it.” Daniel flicked on their lights almost immediately after the guys in front had switched on theirs.

The driver ahead apparently figured Daniel and Jack had been sent to relieve them because, a couple of hand signals later, they peeled off and shot ahead of the convoy. Which left Jack and Daniel as the sole remaining rear guard.

As a General, Jack's first thought was that somebody—or numerous somebodies—should get court-martialed over such a serious lapse in security procedures. His second thought was that, at this rate, it would take at least another twenty minutes to reach the base. He stretched out his legs, pushed his helmet back, and tried to find a less awkward position for his chest.

“How're the ribs?”

“Fine. How's the leg.”

“Fine.”

The convoy dragged on.

“Kidney stones, huh,” Jack said. “Wonder if Landry's on lis feet yet?”

Daniel shot him an odd look. “He hasn't been born yet.”

“I knew that. I was just...you know.”

They were silent for another quarter mile. “So, General Carter, huh? What's she like?”

“Three stars.”

“Wow. Good for Sam.”

“Yeah. Retired.”

“Family?”

Wedding ring and a son. He nodded and looked around at the scenery. Desert on one side, clapboard houses on the other. “Yup.”

“Really?”

“Can we not talk about that?”

“Fine.”

Another half mile rolled on. Drumming his fingers on the dash, Jack watched the truck crawling along the road in front of them. “Wonder if it's operational?”

“What?”

“The Asgard pod.”

Daniel peered at the flatbed, well lit by their headlights. “Hard to tell under the canvas, but from the shape, it looks to be all there.”

“According to Thor they're self-repairing.”

The truck crawled onward.

The desert disappeared in the growing gloom while a few lights came on in the clapboards. “How fast are we going?”

Glancing at the speedometer, Daniel said, “'Bout five miles an hour.”

“I could walk faster than that.”

“I know.”

Ignoring the pain his sudden movement caused, Jack sat up a little straighten “No, I mean I can walk faster than that truck.”

Daniel also sat up straighter.

“All the spare parts we could ever need are sittin' up there, waiting for us.” Jack smiled. “Just like an Asgard Automart.”

Daniel thought on that for a moment and met his look

“Shall we?” Jack asked.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

While Loki—or what Sam presumed was a blank clone that had been meant for Loki—was motionless, the second Asgard, who had sustained fewer injuries, opened his dark eyes and peered at Sam. The spark of intelligence was unmistakable. So was the sense of despair. Biting back her instinct to assure him everything would be fine, Sam composed her features into professional, yet detached clinical interest, and took a step closer to the hospital bed.

“Shocking, isn't it?” Haynes said to her, shaking his head. “The very notion that creatures from another world actually exist.”

Johnson joined a second doctor, a lieutenant colonel, and a nurse standing by the bed of the now dead clone, which had suffered extensive burns to his body. The colonel held his stethoscope against his chest, shaking his head. “I'm not certain what I'm supposed to be listening for.”

“Until a few minutes ago, I couldn't have said for certain that these creatures had hearts,” replied Johnson, bringing his own stethoscope to bear. “But from what I could make out their internal organs bear a resemblance to most mammals.” He caught the colonel's eye. “I'm afraid you're right, Tom. It's stopped breathing and I can't find a pulse. Assuming I even knew where to look for it.”

Agitated by the death, Haynes turned to stare at the surviving Asgard. “You can't allow it to die, Johnson!”

Pulling his stethoscope from around his neck, Johnson thrust it at Haynes. “Well then, you do a better job. I'm a medical doctor, not a veterinarian. I have no idea how to deal with these things.”

The second Asgard, presumably An, turned his gaze to each of them while the nurses, both of whom were visibly distressed, began clearing away the minimalist trauma equipment that had been used in the failed attempt to revive the clone.

Sam approached the survivor, placing herself between him so that the others, who continued to argue about the best way to keep him alive, couldn't see that she'd taken a small red food block from her pocket. One finger held to her lips to indicate he should remain silent, Sam broke off a tiny portion of red food, and held it to his cracked and swollen lipless mouth. Eyes wide now, he barely hesitated before opening his mouth and accepting it. Sam followed up by pouring a glass of water from a nearby jug and holding his head so that he could take a few sips.

This time, her actions did not go unnoticed. “What are you doing?” the colonel rushed across to her. “You have no idea what that will do to it!”

“With all due respect, Colonel,” Sam said, refusing to relinquish her place by the bed. “Dr. Johnson said these creatures are like mammals. They live in our air, which means they must be enough like us so that a few days out in the desert heat, they could be dehydrated.”

Haynes, who a moment ago looked like he was about to take her head off, smiled and crossed his arms. Johnson rubbed his unshaven chin thoughtfully and stepped up to the bed. “You know, she has a point. And it seems to be taking the water. See that?”

The Asgard continued to take in measured sips, even bringing his feverish fingers up to support Sam's hand. The other nurses flinched at that contact, but the unnamed Colonel ordered them to leave, then turned to Sam. “Lieutenant...?”

“Carter,”  Haynes supplied.  “Just transferred  from  Los Alamos.”

“All right, Carter, you seem to be on to something, here.” He peered at her closely. “It touching you like that—doesn't bother you?”

“I was raised on a farm, sir. Always wanted to be a vet, but then the war broke out and I felt my duty was elsewhere.” The lie came easily and she hoped An, who undoubtedly understood every word, appreciated her strategy if not her sentiment. “I was always pretty lucky when it came to nursing injured animals back to health.”

“Maybe we should set up a drip?” Johnson suggested, coming around the other side of the bed and examining the Asgard. Fortunately he changed his mind when An made a show of swallowing the water. “Well, now that it's drinking, it may be okay. You seem to have a knack, Carter. Okay, you've just been assigned to look after the thing.”

“Where do you think they came from?” Haynes wondered.

“My bet would be Mars.” Johnson raised his surgical mask and turned back to examine the dead Asgard. “You know, I was in New York, 'bout ten years ago when they put on that radio play. You know the one with the aliens, the one that Welles fella staged? Blow me down if it isn't coming true. They don't appear hostile,” he added. “But I guess we can't know for certain. Lieutenant.” He turned back to Sam. “Keep up with the water for as long as it will take it, then maybe we can try something like bread.”

“Yes, sir.”

Turning with the colonel to leave, Johnson said to Haynes, “Get someone in here to take that body out before it starts leaking green gas.” As an afterthought he added to Sam, “One of us will be right outside. Assuming you can keep it alive through the night, you'll be going with it to Washington first thing tomorrow morning.”

Sam allowed a brief, worried frown to cross her face, before replying. “Yes, sir.”

On his way out the door, Haynes shot her an approving look. “You know when not to ask questions, Carter. That's good. Someone will come by and relieve you in a couple of hours, give you time to pack your things. We depart at 0400.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Sam waited until she was certain that they weren't coming back, before taking the cup from the Asgard's mouth and offering him more red food. “An?”

When he didn't respond, she pulled the radio from under her smock, and several more Asgard food shapes from her pocket. “General, this is Carter. I'm inside the hospital room where they're keeping An and Loki—”

“Carter!' O'Neill replied. “You tell that measly little gray—”

“Loki's clone. And he's dead. Sir, I'm going to keep this channel open as much as I can but under no circumstances should you call me. Teal'c, are you reading this?”

“I am indeed, Colonel Carter.”

“Okay. We may only be alone for a few minutes at a time and...I think I know why the Air Force never took possession of the escape pods. General Twining ordered everything taken to Wright Field. However, I'm almost certain that government agents and others in the military here are conspiring to divert everything to where they're setting up office. New York, most likely. Sir, I think they're NID.”

O'Neill's response to that information was an unabridged string of expletives in which 'opportunistic sons of bitches' featured prominently.

An's eyes opened again. She smiled reassuringly and taking his fingers in hers, placed two red food shapes in his hand. “An? You are An, aren't you?” When he still didn't reply, she added, “I believe you prefer the green food but you need these.”

Either he was too weak to lift his arm a second time, or he didn't understand her, in which case she may have been wrong about him not being a clone, and that thought worried her enough to add, “I'm going to see if I can revive Loki.”

She pulled her arm from around his neck and plucked the red cubes from his hand. Weak, dry-skinned fingers immediately grasped hers again, and he croaked, “I am An. Who...?”

The relief that flooded Sam was almost tangible. It could so easily have been An lying dead in the nearby bed. “Sir, An's in pretty bad shape; mostly due to dehydration I think. There's no way we can move him, at least for the moment.”

“Ask him if the escape pod's operational.”

“I...I will be all right in a short while.” An tried to lift his hand, but failed. Sam broke more small pieces from the red food shapes and placed it in his mouth. When he indicated the water, she helped him into a sitting position then brought the glass to him. His mouth moved around some, giving Sam the impression he was allowing the red food—or maybe it was some form of Asgard medication—to dissolve, before swallowing.

While he ate, Sam explained who she was and that they had come to take him to the future, adding that the replicators had been destroyed and the Goa'uld pretty much eradicated. She also detailed what Loki had done to the transport and time machine, finishing with, “Is your escape pod operational?”

An had managed to consume only two of the red food cubes before falling back against the pillow, exhausted. The Asgard had abandoned sexual reproduction millennia ago, and Sam had never witnessed anything that vaguely resembled affection between them, yet they did not appear offended by physical contact. When she took his hand again, he opened his eyes and said, “Thank you. This has been a very bad...time.”

“You can say that again.”

“This has been a very—” He stopped when Sam smiled. “Ah. Yes. A human expression. In answer to your question, the flight systems in the pod should be fully capable by now, however ancillary systems and weapons will require manual repairs.”

“Sir, did you copy that?”

“Yeah. Weapons? In an escape pod?” O'Neill demanded through the radio. “Carter, why am I getting the feeling we arrived in the middle of an Asgard academic coup d'etat?”

Sam glanced across at Loki's clone, wondering if he really was dead—and wondering what had transpired between An and Loki. Unlike their ships, Asgard escape pods were—naturally—designed to survive an uncontrolled entry into the atmosphere. The lack of telltale impact crater and wreckage at Mark Brazel's ranch was indicative that the pod had exploded prior to impact.

Or been shot down.

An followed the direction of her gaze. An expression Sam could only describe as sadness crossed his face.

“I'm sorry,” she said, moving to stand. “I'll see if I can help him.”

“Loki's clone has expired. My fault. All of this is my fault.”

Before Sam could answer him, the door burst open and Cancer Man walked in.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

There were no guards on the flatbed. Who expected anybody to steal something so large? And nobody in 1947 had any idea what they were dealing with, anyway. It was a fair call, Jack supposed, that the US Army thought an alien spacecraft was safe from being hijacked a few miles from one of their top bases but he was still pissed in principle that security was so lax.

In deference to his knees, Jack didn't attempt to crouch as he ran toward the flatbed, Daniel limping along beside him. There were no streetlights, so they'd parked the jeep and switched off the headlights in case anyone up front bothered to look in their rearview mirrors. Not that it would have been able to see anything anyway, because the pod blocked their view, which brought Jack back to the whole lack of security thing. On the upside, it meant they probably had a few minutes alone with the pod to make certain it was hijackable.

Daniel, being somewhat younger—not to mention the whole intact ribcage and knees thing—climbed onboard first, and then turned to give Jack a hand up. It hurt like he'd been stabbed but the pain soon subsided after they lifted the canvas and ducked underneath.

Jack ran his hands over the smooth exterior, trying to discern if there was any external damage. Based on the radio message from Carter, he strongly suspected his time-traveling jumper was not in the least responsible for the Asgard abandoning their orbiting ship, although the impact probably had damaged its beaming technology, explaining why Loki had used the jumper's to beam himself back to the ship. As for this escape pod...admittedly he'd zoned out the only time he'd been confronted with Asgard operations manuals, but the self-repair systems apparently had been working overtime.

“Back here!” Daniel whispered. He was on his hands and knees, peering underneath the pod.

With a grunt of pain Jack knelt beside him. He couldn't see worth a damned under the canvas, but Daniel was playing a flashlight across the hull. “It's upside down,” he pointed out, unnecessarily.

“I can see that, Daniel.” The escape pods had been purpose-built to keep an Asgard alive in the event of a catastrophic hull failure in interstellar space, where there were no handy planets they could beam to. This particular model was apparently weapons' capable, which raised another whole slew of questions.

“Can we still open it?”

“Dunno.”

Jack palmed the control panel that, to the untrained eye. would have looked no different from any other part of the ship. You had to know where to find it. The hatch opened in a flood of light, pushing the pod upwards in a screech of metal as it scraped along the flatbed.

Even over the grumbling roar of the truck's engines, someone must have heard that.

As soon as the hatch was wide enough, Jack pulled his palm away and crawled inside, with Daniel right on his six.

The pod rocked back and forth. The truck had stopped. “Shut the hatch!”

Daniel did as he was asked, precipitating another screech of composite material on metal. According to Teal'c's tabloids, it'd taken years before anyone—the NID most likely—had figured out how to break inside, which gave Jack some time to figure out how to fly the thing.

But not much time. Those misbegotten bastards snooping around the place explained a whole bunch of things that Jack really didn't want to think about right now. Instead, he tried to reposition himself inside of something that had about as much room as a Volkswagen—the original model, not the twenty-first century version, which he refused to get into on principle.

“Can you fly us out of here?”

“Gimme a minute.” Jack had flown Asgard ships before, more or less, but usually when he was the right way up relative to the controls. Speaking of which, there was a distinct lump under his left kidney.

A loud banging on the hull reverberated through the pod.

“We got company.”

“No kidding.”

“Can I help?”

Awkwardly shifting around, Jack yanked out the stone and held it up. “Find the rest of these.”

Placed against the slots on the control panel, the stone attached itself like a magnet. Jack was rewarded with a subsonic thrumming that permeated his bones and sent a peculiar tingling sensation through his knees. Not knowing if that was a good thing or a bad thing, he decided it didn't much matter.

“Here.” Daniel twisted around and handed him a second stone.

Attaching it to the panel achieved nothing, so Jack twisted it slightly. Half one side of the pod turned translucent with a HUD insert on which a bunch of Asgard diagrams rapidly flashed across the screen, like the thing was trying to reset itself. Hopefully it would skip through the engineering primer for Beliskner class escape pods and get straight down to business.

A slight adjustment of the stone and much of the hull turned transparent. He knew that because through the hull he could see a pair of boots, but on the HUD the same boots appeared upside down. The system's computer was compensating for the inverted perspective. Nice, but not helpful at the moment.

“Why don't you try—?”

Jack shifted the stone forward half an inch, and the pod abruptly moved in a vertical direction—straight down into the flatbed. The boots vanished; their owner either thrown off or he'd jumped clear as the pod's force field rapidly disintegrated the base of the truck and axle in quick succession, followed soon after by the road. The inertial dampeners must have kicked in as well, because the there was no sense of motion whatsoever.

Naturally, the truck had come to a grinding halt. Jack knew that because the view through the screen offered a surprisingly well-lit but slightly fuzzy image of what remained of rubber tires oozing across a rapidly melting asphalt and concrete road, and soldiers scattering in every direction.

“Jack!”

“Whoops.” He flashed Daniel an unrepentant grin. “Had the silly thing in reverse.”

In all fairness, it wasn't so much reverse as their currently inverted situation. He couldn't hear the racket outside, but he reckoned that, by now, they were making enough noise to alert a fair percentage of the population of New Mexico.

“Jack.”

“Not now, Daniel.” He rotated the stone one hundred and eighty degrees. They both tumbled backwards, crashing into each other—which sent a jolt of agony through Jack's chest, as the craft also rotated one hundred and eighty degrees.

Maybe the inertial dampeners needed work.

Their vision promptly vanished, presumably because the pod had taken off in a vertical direction—this time, up—and carried the canvas covers away with it, which blocked the viewers. Either that or he'd bumped the second stone.

“Jack, I think we're airborne. Can you get us cloaked—aside from the canvas hood flapping around the place, I mean?”

“If you get your elbow out of my mouth.” Yeah, it was definitely the stone, because a slight twist to the left and the HUD cleared to reveal stars.

“Ah... Jack... have you noticed the stars aren't twinkling?”

He glanced up. Okay, so they'd left the scene of the heist at Mach Several and were approaching orbit, which meant the inertial dampeners worked just fine. Maybe the artificial gravity needed tweaking, since Daniel's elbow was now digging into his shoulder.

“And isn't the moon getting kind of close?”

“Daniel, who's driving this thing?”

He ignored the mumbled reply 'Duck Dodgers', conceding he'd brought that one on himself. At least they weren't staring at Jupiter. Which reminded him. “We should probably let Teal'c know we're coming.”

“How we going to do that without breaking Sam's cover?”

“Got the cloak working...I think. We'll park behind the jumper and wait until she calls.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Teal'c was intrigued by the knowledge that events long dismissed by the Air Force and much of the Tau'ri population as fictional, were indeed entirely factual.

The mythology that had evolved as a consequence of the crashed Asgard escape pods had been but one of many such beliefs for which certain members of the Tau'ri had developed a deep, indeed, almost spiritual fondness. The crash sites near Roswell had been enshrined by some, with rituals that involved prayer, the giving of flowers, meditation, and a memorial plaque, which read: We don't know who they were. We don't know why they came. We only know they changed our view of the universe.

Despite their misplaced sympathies for what was now evidently Loki's clones, Teal'c empathized with the deeper need of the Tau'ri to understand the truth of their place in the universe. Like the Jaffa, they, too, desired to invest their faith in something greater than themselves, naive and blind in their desperation. And seemingly willing to follow any path in their search for enlightenment. To his dismay, even Jaffa as astute and powerful as Gerak and the Sodan leader, Haikon, had foolishly chosen to follow the path of Origin—until learning the true nature of the Ori.

While their initial willingness to exchange one set of false gods for another disturbed Teal'c, a part of him understood the reason. To a Jaffa, Ascension was the ultimate achievements, beyond their reach because of their enslavement to the Goa'uld. And yet freedom from those false gods had brought only dissent among the Jaffa, and Ascension had proven to be flawed. The Ancients cared nothing for mortal beings, while the Ori preyed upon them. If the Sangraal could truly kill them, then their immortality was also a lie.

But one thing could not be taken from the hearts of all true Jaffa: their sense of honor. It was the same sense of honor that had driven some Tau'ri to enshrine the crash sites near Roswell.

Sadly, others were far less honorable, and viewed the recovery of the Asgard and their escape pods as an opportunity to gain wealth and power. It was that which Teal'c was now witnessing.

A military truck escorted by two jeeps carrying enlisted men had earlier driven several packing cases to what he immediately identified as Bomb Pit #1. Located less then one hundred and fifty feet from where he had stationed himself on the roof of the jumper, the bomb pit had been the site of constant activity throughout the day. The most recent had seen those crates loaded from the pit into a C-54 aircraft that had taxied to a stop nearby. Although Teal'c had been unable to hear the soldiers conversing, their bearing demonstrated a heightened level of tension and uncertainty.

According to several accounts, the crates were filled with the remainder of the wreckage acquired by Captain Cavitt and Major Marcel, and were bound for Washington DC and Fort Worth. Presumably certain military personnel aligning themselves with the civilian members of the nascent NID had had the contents diverted from this assigned destination.

A short while before Colonel Carter had reported from within the base hospital, three additional wooden packing cases had been trucked to an area just fifty feet from the end of the runway, close to where the jumper lay hidden.

It was no coincidence. Records would show that the commander of the base, Colonel William Blanchard, had supposedly gone on leave at this point in the day, however it would be later revealed that he had only left the base to investigate the Brazel crash site. Some accounts claimed that the alien bodies had been kept within Hangar P-3. Others insisted that the fumes given off by the bodies during the aborted autopsies had been so disturbing that before leaving the base, Blanchard ordered them removed to the far end of the main runway. They would then be loaded aboard the flight that Teal'c knew was scheduled to depart at 0200 hours the following morning.

What Teal'c was witnessing now gave credence to the latter scenario, based on the testimony of Sergeant Melvin Brown. The crates were not merely placed on the ground, but inside a hastily erected tent guarded by eight MPs. A short time later, an officer arrived in a jeep and, upon greeting the guards, said to the sergeant, “Come on, Brownie, let's have a look inside.”

“Nothing to see, sir, 'cept a couple of crates.”

Nevertheless the officer switched off the engine, climbed out of the jeep, stepped inside the tent and remained there for several minutes. Upon exiting, he said, “So, what's inside them? UFO parts?”

To Teal'c's ears, Sergeant Brown's brief laugh sounded forced. “The General's furniture is all I know, sir.”

“Uh huh,” the officer replied. “And I suppose that other crate they were hammering a lid on when I left is his kid's bunk.”

“Guess so, sir. I hear tell Pappy's going to be flying it all out.”

“Pappy's had a right busy day.” The officer's gaze turned to the road immediately outside the base. “Lookie here. General Twining's must be moving his entire house with all that furniture coming in on a flatbed—holy cow, you see that?”

Even through the distorted light of Teal'c's night glasses, the pallor that enveloped the officer's face was evident. While the MPs turned to stare fearfully at the road, the officer withdrew his service pistol and leaped back into his jeep.

Carefully twisting around to see what had disturbed the soldiers, Teal'c noted a line of military vehicles had abruptly come to a halt on the far side of the barbed wire fence. The reason for their stopping was no doubt due to the fact that the Asgard escape pod was attempting to depart the flatbed by burrowing into the road. This had precipitated considerable commotion among the accompanying soldiers, who, calling out in terror, were now fleeing their vehicles.

Given the last discussion between O'Neill and Colonel Carter, it was evident O'Neill was experiencing some difficulty with the controls.

The pod abruptly rotated and lifted from the now destroyed flatbed covered with a tarpaulin that fell to earth as the pod accelerated at a velocity that indicated it would soon enter orbit.

This was not a scenario that had been suggested in the many versions of the Roswell incident, which left Teal'c to conclude that any attempt to restrict their impact on this time had now been abandoned.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

“You got it to drink, I hear.”

Cancer Man was followed by two orderlies carrying a large, straw-filled wooden crate. They wasted no time in collecting the dead clone, unceremoniously dumping it into the crate, and then leaving again with barely a glance at An.

“Good work, Lieutenant,” Cancer Man added to Sam. “If it starts talking to you, call me straight away. I want to interrogate it as soon as possible.”

Sam was well practiced in biting back responses to grossly stupid remarks, but she managed a barely civil, “Yes, sir.”

Lighting a cigarette, the agent strolled over to the side of the bed and stared down at An. “Ugly little critters, aren't they?”

An failed to react to the comment, however when Cancer Man blew cigarette smoke into his face, the Asgard's nostrils flared and he coughed several times.

That elicited a smirk from the agent. “Weak, too.”

Keeping a tight reign on her anger, Sam stood with her hands clasped together, hoping he wouldn't notice the edge of the radio protruding from her uniform. Now was not a good to time get herself captured.

An air raid siren went off in the distance. The door slammed open and an MP burst into the room just as a second air raid warning sounded nearby. “Sir! We're under attack from the... flying saucer space beings!” Further sounds of running feet and panicked shouts followed him into the room.

Barely glancing at Sam, Cancer Man spun around and rushed out of the room in a cloud of tobacco smoke. Sam immediately positioned herself so her back was to the door. Anyone glancing through the window would be unable to see her and An conversing. She withdrew her radio and spoke rapidly. “Sir, we're alone again, but possibly only for a few minutes.”

“Hey, Sam. We've got the pod,” Daniel replied.

An's response to that news was to sit further up in bed.

“Jack's having a little difficulty steering, and I'm not entirely certain we're cloaked.”

“Sir, did you use any Asgard weapons?”

“Just pranged one of their flatbeds is all,” O'Neill replied in a distracted voice.

That, at least, explained the panic now permeating the base.

“Right now, Carter, all I want to know is how we beam you both outta there. I can't figure out the controls on this thing.”

“Loki...” An trailed off and slumped back onto the bed. “My fault.”

Just what they needed, a morbidly depressed Asgard. Biting her lip to contain her impatience, Sam said to him, “Ah, yes... well, actually, our jumper hit your ship when it emerged into this space-time coordinate. We're very sorry about that, but if you can explain how the transport—”

“Then it was no accident,” An interrupted. “The chances of two craft emerging out of hyperspace in the same moment of time and space are infinitesimal.”

Sam had worked that out for herself a heartbeat after they'd collided with An's ship but she could worry about the implications of that, later. For now she needed An to act a little more Asgardy. “You can't blame yourself for Loki's actions.”

“But I am responsible for foolishly ignoring Loki's inexplicable absences.” He met her gaze. “Several days ago I discovered he had secretly developed four Asgard-human hybrids and grown them as clones.”

Shocked, Sam stared at him. That explained the unusual looking Asgard in the operating theatre, the one giving off toxic green gas.

“Having already become concerned I would discover his work, I fear Loki compounded his transgressions by doing something that is against our highest laws.”

“Which was...?”

An shook his head sorrowfully. “He transferred his consciousness into a clone, while still retaining his original body. Worse, he failed to complete this task correctly, and the clone then cloned itself five times. Loki damaged the transport device on my ship before he and his clones stole a several escape pods and fled. I followed.”

Still shaking his head in disbelief, An closed his eyes. “Such things no Asgard has done for a thousand years. They fired upon me. I had no choice. I could not allow them to land on this planet.”

The impact of what he was telling her was staggering. “You returned fire.”

He nodded. “Loki beamed out just before his escape pod exploded. I believe he attempted to beam the clones from their pods, but miscalculated and the fall killed all but one. I beamed the surviving clone aboard, but failed to collect Loki, who fired upon my ship. That's when I crashed.” An seemed to hunch down like a despairing child in the too large bed. “I am appalled by what has happened. In all the millennia we have been coming to Earth, no human has ever noticed us. We have been so very careful. The Council....” He sighed. “I will be punished, as I should be, for not paying more attention to Loki's activities. And now, it seems, we are also responsible for creating a rift in the timeline. Oh, Loki,” he mumbled. “What have you done?”

An wasn't acting at all like any Asgard that Sam had met. Then again, he'd had several days to contemplate Loki's malfeasance and his own error in not preventing the disaster. Now, dehydrated and very ill, he was also confronted by a new reality; that members of the human race, a species the Asgard had been studying like lab rats, were considerably more capable than he had suspected.

Not to mention the unfortunate realization that an Asgard was now the lab rat.

There really wasn't time to sit around and offer commiserations, which weren't exactly her strong suite at the best of times. Fixing an encouraging smile to her face, Sam said, “In our time, General O'Neill—the human I was speaking to on the radio—caught Loki a few years back. Loki is being punished for some of what he did, and when we get you back to the future, you'll be able to inform the High Council of everything else. Meanwhile, we really need to get out of here, and to do that, we need your help.”

An blinked a few times, sat up, and placed the last of the red food cubes into his mouth. This time he chewed them. He also managed to down half a glass of water without any help from Sam. Whatever was in the red cubes was having a dramatic impact on the Asgard, because his skin had cooled and was regaining some of its natural gloss. “What is it you require?” he asked.

“Is the transport device in your pod operational?”

“It was only designed to operate at close range, as a safety mechanism. That is how Loki managed to bring my pod down.”

“How close?”

“Perhaps one hundred and fifty of your feet.”

That was all Sam needed to recover Vala and Mitchell, especially if they could keep the jumper cloaked. “Can we extract the transport device from the pod?”

“I am feeling much better, now.” An closed his eyes, but this time, he seemed far more relaxed. “I could undertake the task in twenty minutes, perhaps.”

She lifted the radio. “Sir, are you reading all of this?”

“All ears, Carter.”

“An, can you explain the procedure to the General to beam us out?”

The Asgard's instructions were interrupted by a loud explosion nearby, followed by an even closer grinding noise directly overhead. “Be a few moments yet, Sam,” Daniel shouted. “We're having...technical issues.”

“What sort of technical issues?” she asked wondering if it had anything to do with the noise. That's when she heard something behind her and realized Cancer Man was standing there.

“General, huh?” he said, tearing the smock from her shoulder to reveal the radio. “Is that your boss's rank in the MGB, Olga?”

Oh...great. The MGB was soon to be better known as the KGB. Daniel had landed them all in it quite comprehensively last time this had happened, which had resulted in hours of laborious questions, bright lights and more cigarette smoke than a DC nightclub.

Cancer Man called out and within moments, the room was swarming with MPs. Haynes was on their heels, with Brylcreem right behind. Sam raised her hands to show she was unarmed, but someone pushed her to her knees and pressed the barrel of a Springfield against the side of her head. Another half dozen MPs surrounded An on the bed, pointing their weapons at him.

“What's going on?” the doctor, Johnson, demanded, pushing his way past the MPs. “Get away from that bed!”

“Caught ourselves a spy,” Cancer Man said, pulling a pistol from his own shoulder holster. He pushed the barrel of a German Luger—probably a souvenir of the war that he'd pilfered from an actual combatant—into Sam's forehead. “And she's going to tell us her real name, and where her Commie pals are. Right now.”

“Hey!” Johnson objected. “You can't do that!”

“You think so?” Cancer Man said. “She's got a radio. I heard her talking to her boss, a general, no less. They were planning to take that...thing outta here. I'm betting it's some Russian experimental monster and that ship is one of their secret weapons.” He pushed the barrel into Sam's forehead even further. She could feel the foresight cutting into her skin.

Sam stared up at Cancer Man. She could see it in his eyes; the ruthless, opportunistic nature that would drive the NID.

“Where's the general you're talking to on this?” Brylcreem snatched the radio from her breast pocket. His face screwed up and he peered at the slim wire. “This another one of your Commie gadgets? Where's the rest of it?” He reached down and roughly pulled her shirt aside, searching for something that didn't exist. “I don't know what's going on, but your Commie pals will never get away with it.”

“Got away with the flying saucer, didn't they?” Johnson interrupted. “And if you don't get that gun out of her face—”

“Search her locker,” Brylcreem snarled at the MP. “Every inch of it. There has to be more of the radio around here someplace.”

Johnson's glower shifted from Cancer Man to Brylcreem and then Haynes. “This contravenes all military protocol when it comes to dealing with prisoners. And you're crazy if you think that bit of wire is some sort of radio.”

Cancer Man cocked the Luger. His finger, which was level with Sam's eyes, slowly pulled back on the trigger. “Maybe I am a little crazy at that. Tell me who you are or you're gonna get a bullet, you hear me? I ain't muckin' around.”

“Dana Scully.”

“Same last name as one of the guys who attacked us at the diner,” an MP interrupted.

“Where's your pals, now? What are they doing with that ship?”

“Go to hell.”

His face turned an entertaining shade of puce, but she knew he'd never shoot her. For one thing, she was the only one who might have any answers.

“Agent,” snapped Johnson, “you pull that trigger and so help me I'll have you hauled up in front of a military court and shot!”

The puce was just turning an interesting shade of beet red when a familiar beam of light filled the room, and An vanished. The Luger swung around, but the bullet Cancer Man squeezed off plowed harmlessly into the empty bed. The butt end of the Springfield swung around hard and slammed into her head.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Cramped was such an understated word, Daniel decided. Compacted was probably more accurate, but with an NID agent holding a gun to Sam's head, he understood why Jack had tried to beam her and An into the pod.

The sound of a gunshot rang out from their radios at the same moment as An materialized beside him. “Where's Sam?” Daniel demanded, trying to suppress the sense of panic clenching his guts when the transmission from Sam's radio abruptly cut off.

Leveling a round of curses at the Asgard transport, Jack snarled, “That sonofabitch is as good as dead!”

A spotlight with the candlepower of a small sun illuminated the inside of the escape pod. The Asgard cried out in pain and raised his arms in a futile attempt to protect his photosensitive eyes.

Daniel wasn't an expert in the mechanics of Asgard escape pods, but the damage it had sustained when Loki had shot An out of the sky, Jack's failed attempt to tunnel their way out of Roswell plus bumping into the Air Field control tower and what looked to be a section of the hospital roof probably contributed to the failure of the external sensors to compensate for the light.

“O'Neill,” Teal'c called over the radio. “You are visible.”

“Got that,” Jack replied, twisting the control stones around.

They abruptly sped off in the direction of...actually, Daniel wasn't entirely certain of their direction, because they were upside down. Again. “An—” He tried to be gentle as he grasped the Asgard by the arm and helped him untangle himself. “We have to get back there.”

Eyes firmly shut against the blinding spotlights that followed them around the sky, An reached out for the control panel and made a few subtle alterations to the stones. The inside of the pod instantly darkened until only the muted lights of the stars appeared. Correction. Traffic lights.

“Oops,” Daniel observed. “I think we're in downtown Roswell. And judging by the way people are pointing at us, I don't think we're cloaked.”

Jack shot him an odd look. “Tell me you're not worried about people seeing a flying saucer over Roswell?”

“No. I'm worried about getting close enough to the hospital so we can get Sam out of there.”

“That will no longer be possible,” An said, redirecting the craft, which wasn't exactly flying in a straight line, in the approximate direction of the base. “There is considerably more damage to the flight systems and transport of this unit than I expected. It could take several hours to effect repairs.”

“What do you mean, several hours?” Jack demanded.

The Asgard cringed away from Jack, prompting Daniel to say, “Jack, give him a break. He's not the one who busted the thing. And Sam's not dead, she couldn't be, otherwise she could never send us here to this time.”

“Weren't you the one who pointed out that this timeline is different?”

“They won't have shot her,” he said determinedly. “You know that, Jack. It was a bluff to get her to talk.”

“I am responsible.” The Asgard's shoulders slumped. “I am sorry.”

Jack met Daniel's look over An's head. This was an Asgard?  “Okay, An,” Jack said, the restraint in his tone obviously forced. “How about we stick to plan A. You land this thing, get the transport out and repaired, install it in the jumper and then we beam Carter out of there.”

An stared at him. “Jumper?”

“Our ship,” Daniel clarified.

“Parked at the northern end of the main runway,” Jack added. “We cloaked yet?”

“I believe so but the systems are not fully operational so I cannot be certain.”

An tweaked the stones again and a thermal image appeared on the HUD, showing the deployment of soldiers—a lot of soldiers, which was to be expected, Daniel supposed, given the nukes currently stored on the base, but it was impossible to distinguish the hundreds of individuals, all of whom seemed to be running, inside the base. Scanning wider, the thermal image then revealed a solitary person sitting alone on top of a void in a pile of junk.

“Like a kid watching his favorite cartoon show,” Jack remarked. He still sounded none too happy, but Daniel honestly couldn't bring himself to think that Sam had been shot. It just didn't make sense, regardless of what timeline they were in. The NID agent was bluffing.

He had to have been bluffing.

An was still fiddling with the controls. Despite the jumper's cloaking mechanism, some of the components became visible on the pod's HUD. An's eyes narrowed, and then widened. “That is an Ancient vessel.” His voice was incredulous and he turned to Daniel. “You are the pilot?”

“Nope.”

The Asgard's gaze took in Jack.

“Don't get me started.” With a glance in Daniel's direction, Jack added, “Besides, he's the one who Ascended. Twice.”

“Oh, and in case Sam didn't mention it,” Daniel said, offering An a reassuring smile, “Thor and Heimdall passed on their regards, and we have some green food for you.”

An's eyelids batted furiously. “You have come so far in just sixty Earth years? How is this possible?”

“We're fast learners,” Jack replied, as Daniel braced himself for what was bound to be a bumpy landing.

CHAPTER THIRTY

“I can't believe they gave Davis's concession to Carter!” Vala ripped off her straw hat and tossed it onto the table. It slipped across the glass surface like a Frisbee, barely missing the pitcher of iced tea, and landed among the collection of potted baby date palms lining the hotel room balcony. “That rat-faced fez-headed pompous bureaucrat promised me that the Department of Antiquities would never give him and Carnarvon another concession.”

A light breeze ruffled the surface of the Nile waters a few hundred yards away, filling the sails of several feluccas. On the far side, the not-so enigmatic Giza pyramids, the decrepit landing pads of a parasitic race, were turning from gold to bronze in the setting sun.

“Calm down.” Cam batted away at the squadron of mosquitoes that had zeroed in on them. It had taken them six years to get to this point, and he wasn't about to let Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon's acquisition of Davis's concession to the Valley of the Kings put him off his stride. “We knew there was a possibility they'd get it first. It just means you're going to have to go back to Highclere Castle and make nice with Almina.”

Vala shot him a poisonous look. “Berkshire in winter. Thank you ever so much for that thought.”

“Well, you could always raid Glastonbury Tor while you're in the area. It's not as if anyone will notice any missing treasure.”

She flopped into the cane chair beside him, and reached for the iced tea. “If you'd been sensible enough to have studied your people's history instead of baseball scores, we might have found Tutankhamen's tomb by now.”

Cam pulled a cigar from his pocket and took his time lighting it. He'd never much liked the things, but the lazy blue coils of smoke proved an effective deterrent to the ever-present whining insects currently trying to feast on his neck.

A shrill crooning drew his eyes upward. He suppressed a momentary spasm of envy for the falcons' freedom to soar across the cloudless Egyptian sky. The temptation to abandon their search for the second half of the remote DHD, climb into a flimsy cockpit and engage in slow motion dogfights over the bloody battlefields of France and Belgium, just for the chance to fly again, was short lived. His duty lay elsewhere, and Cam knew, as evidenced by her outburst, that Vala was entirely with him in this.

Watching the falcon in hot pursuit of a smaller bird, he said, “Think of it as a chance to hunt through that pile of treasure they've got stashed away. You said yourself you sensed traces of naquadah last time we were there, and Lady Carnarvon did invite you back for Christmas.”

Vala spooned out the mint leaves and tossed them into the palms, before downing an entire glass of tea. For a moment the only sound was that of the overhead fan in the bedroom behind, beating futilely at the relentless heat.

“How long did you say this war is going to last?” she said, refilling her glass.

“I guess that depends on who else died in the fire, doesn't it?”

He felt her hand on his arm before he'd finished speaking. “I've had considerably more experience than you in living with regret, Cam. You really need let it go, you know.”

Sure. Let it go.

Every morning for the first six months after he and Vala had landed in 1908, he'd convinced himself that was the day that Sam would beam them into the puddle jumper. She was just being cautious, he'd assured himself. Couldn't have the jumper bumping into itself coming and going through time. And it wasn't as if he and Vala were the first members of an SG team to be stuck someplace while every member of Stargate Command worked day and night to get them back home. Hell, General O'Neill had put his career—and a whole lot more—on the line to rescue Major Boyd's team, and no way would Sam Carter risk messing up history by leaving anyone in the past for a moment longer than she had to.

Then one fine day in the Fall of 1908, Cam had learned that there would be no rescue. And there'd been no ifs, buts or maybes about it.

Howard had by then convinced his mother that they needed to take in borders to pay the bills, and old Mrs. Lovecraft, not exactly firing on all cylinders, had accepted Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell without question. Despite Vala's pleading to have Cam use his knowledge of history to rake in a fortune, he'd cautiously restricted his betting on ball games so that it barely covered the cost of their upkeep. Good thing, as it had turned out, because on October 10, Howard had come home without the expected winnings from the Chicago versus Detroit baseball game. The Cubs had lost to Detroit by four points.

They should have won ten to six.

The wrenching sensation Cam had felt at that moment had been infinitely worse than the day the doctors had told him he'd never walk again. A busted back and legs were a small price to pay for the knowledge that his actions had helped defend Earth from Anubis.

Learning that he had single-handedly altered Earth's history was a whole different ballgame—no pun intended.

A sports editorial in the newspaper had lamented the fact that if Cubs ace, Mordecai 'Three Finger' Brown, had still been alive, he would have won the game for the Cubs. Sadly, 'Three Finger' had died in the Brown University fire while rescuing a valuable racehorse named Wintergreen from the burning coach house.

For four days, Cam had held out a vague hope that his memory was somehow flawed, but on October 14, the Detroit Tigers won the World Series.'

That one moment of distraction, when he hadn't taken the right precautions before entering the tack room, had changed everything. It took very little imagination to guess the consequences. SG-1 —and right at that moment, Cam no longer considered himself a member of SG-1 —had not come back for him and Vala because he'd altered the future. With SG-1 missing in time, or worse, dead, Earth was as good as lost, if not to Ra or some other Goa'uld, then to the Ori.

Which—as Vala had pointed out almost immediately—left them with no option but to go back to that day in 1908 and sort out the mess.

Sure. Simple. No problem...well, actually, several dozen problems, beginning with the fact that the remote DHD device Vala had plucked from the tea chest months earlier had been missing a few vital components, specifically, the functioning part of the cuff that wrapped around the palm and wrist.

SG-1 had faced slimmer odds in the past, and Cam at least had an idea in what country the rest of the device might be found. History had already been altered, which meant all bets were off when it came to using every resource available to locate the thing.

Naturally, Vala had almost fallen over herself agreeing to his plan. While Cam's knowledge of the early twentieth century was limited to generalities, he'd known enough to restore the Lovecraft estate to its former opulence by investing in the fledgling Persian oil fields and technologically innovative industries.

Every six months or so, Cam stumbled across events that didn't quite ring true, and inevitably it could be traced back to that fateful night in Rhode Island and the death of Three Finger. But for the most part, history repeated itself with sufficient predictability so that by the time WWI had broken out, Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell had become embarrassingly wealthy.

More importantly, Vala had spent those years and a good portion of that wealth tracking down and scouring old documents and papyri in search of the missing component to the hand device, while Cam invested his spare time in becoming something of an expert in Egyptology.

Their eureka moment had come in the summer of 1913. While Cam hadn't been able to recall every detail of Daniel Jackson's reports (despite what he'd told Vala), combined with his research, he remembered enough to make a point of befriending the Carnarvons, something relatively easy to achieve when you were a filthy rich Rhode Island industrial magnate with a penchant for Egyptology.

He and Vala had accepted an invitation to spend a month at Highclere Castle, where the Carnarvons retreated during the height of the Egyptian summer. Lord Carnarvon had by then amassed the single finest personal collection of Egyptian artifacts in the world, and he was not exactly backward in showing it all off to his house guests. Part of the collection included an excellent copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, in this instance, a papyrus that he and Carter had recovered from the tomb of Amenhotep I.

The papyrus featured several illustrations of old Amenhotep. In each instance where his hand had been visible, he'd been wearing something that Vala immediately recognized as the second half of the remote DHD. Further research revealed that it also appeared on the hand of Amenhotep II and III. A carefully inscribed notation elsewhere in the document mentioned that it had been gifted to the third Amenhotep's favored grandson, who had taken to playing with it as a child.

And that's when Cam began to think they might have a serious chance of locating it. Although no one except him knew it at that time, the tomb of Amenhotep Ill's grandson—Tutankhamen—had never fallen prey to grave robbers. If the cuff really had been important to the boy king, it would have been interred with him.

All they had to do was locate Tutankhamen's tomb.

“Y'know, it might be better this way,” he said to Vala. “As long as we stay in the Carnarvon's good books, chances are that when they find the tomb, if we're around they'll invite us in to take a look, just like they have with all the tombs they've unearthed so far. And with your skills—”

“It is only small. Besides, if needs be, I've still got my trusty hand device to knock out a few memories.” Vala sighed theatrically and poured herself another glass of tea. “I just wish that you could remember what date Tut's tomb was found, that's all. I mean, I don't mind waiting another year or so I suppose, but at this rate, I'll be too old to bear any of Daniel's children when we do get back.”

It had become a running joke between them, but Cam decided that it was best not to mention the Great War would last for at least four years, after which they'd have to contend with a global pandemic called Swine 'flu. He just hoped in this altered timeline, Carter and Carnarvon managed to survive both.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Teal'c had spent the last minutes carefully making his way across the wreckage in which the jumper was buried. It was imperative he remain unseen, which was becoming increasingly difficult as the spotlights now sweeping the perimeter of the base regularly illuminated his position. In contrast, all the lights in the buildings had now been extinguished. Based on WWII era movies that he had watched, this blackout was an attempt to hinder the targeting capabilities of their perceived enemy.

The misconception they were under attack was doubtless reinforced by O'Neill's inadvertent destruction of the control tower. The flames that now engulfed the tower were spreading rapidly to nearby buildings. The urgent sound of air raid sirens joined those of fire trucks.

The fortunate outcome of this was that all of the soldiers previously on guard at Bomb Pit #1 and the nearby tent housing the bodies of the Asgard clones, had been called from their posts. Consequently, Daniel Jackson and An's emergence from . the cloaked Asgard escape pod remained undetected despite the abrupt nature of its landing sending up a considerable quantity of dust.

Upon seeing Teal'c, An's countenance shifted dramatically. “Then it is true,” he said, pausing at the base of the escape pod's hatch. “The Goa'uld have been defeated and the Jaffa are free.”

“As, too, are the Asgard freed from the scourge of the Replicators,” Teal'c replied bowing his head respectfully. “How can I now be of assistance?”

“Here,” O'Neill called from within the void. A pair of disembodied hands appeared carrying what Teal'c recognized as a section from an Asgard transport.

It took twenty minutes to dismantle the entire transporter and load it into the jumper. The task would have been completed sooner, however they'd had to exercise considerable caution in dodging the relentless sweep of searchlights. Three times they also paused to allow the departure of aircraft, the loss of the control tower failing to hamper flight operations.

They had almost completed the task when a fourth aircraft, a C-54, taxied to Bomb Pit # 1. Eight armed soldiers emerged from the plane, and proceeded to load the crates from the pit, while a truck carrying four additional soldiers arrived at the tent to retrieve the Asgard bodies.

It was evident to Teal'c while they waited in the wreckage of the gully, that both of his teammates were in some pain, the result, no doubt, of prior injuries aggravated by aerial maneuvers. Daniel Jackson had taken further medication to prevent infection and O'Neill had accepted Teal'c's offer to re-strap his ribs—once they had recovered Colonel Carter.

“This is the final component,” An announced when he stepped into the jumper with a small metallic box in hand. “However, the power supply unit is no longer functional.”

“Can you repair it?” Daniel Jackson asked.

The Asgard blinked at him. “It is no longer functional.”

“Right. Got that.” Pointing in the direction of the base hospital, Daniel Jackson said, “How are we going to get Sam out of there?”

“I can extract the escape pod power supply unit, however that will take until morning, and it will first necessitate the disengagement of the cloaking device.”

“Forget it,” O'Neill declared when a searchlight played across them. “The moment that pod becomes visible, we're going to be the subject of much panicked and fairly pissed off target practice.” Turning to An he asked, “What about flying the escape pod out of here?”

“Its flight systems are severely damaged but it could travel a short distance, I believe.”

“According to Carter, the jumper's flight capable, so let's get this show on the road. Teal'c, you and An follow us in the pod.”

“Where are we going?” Daniel Jackson asked.

Jack turned to the controls. “Some place a little less busy.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

In scopolamine, Veritas. At least, that's what Cancer Man must have presumed when he or his pal, Brylcreem had injected her on the flight to DC, because Sam recognized the paradoxical depressive-euphoric sensation fogging her mind.

Truth serum, the OSS—the wartime precursor to the CIA—had labeled it. “Also called hyoscine, C17 H21 NO4,” she said. “Contains a sedative, so it takes the edge off the headache, too. Watch out for the downer, though, I'll probably throw up.”

“What's your real name?” snapped Cancer Man. She assumed it was Cancer Man based on his sour breath, because his face was in shadow.

Come to think of it, all of their faces were masked by coils of blue haze breaking up the darkness that surrounded a solitary pool of turbid light in which she was the star attraction. She was also plonked down on a hard backed wooden chair. Closing one eye, she squinted at the overhead light. Bare, fly-speckled globe under a flying sauce shaped shade with the obligatory peeling paint. The setting was such an archetype that Sam was hard pressed not to giggle. Instead, she opted for the truth, which was going to be just as much fun, all things considered. “Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, United States Air Force, 43-412-6775-320. D'you think maybe you could have used some mouthwash? I think your breath convenes the Geneva Convention Regulations about cruel and unusual punishment.”

A snigger from somewhere in the shadows transformed into a sudden fit of coughing.

“You got your wires sadly crossed, Olga. There ain't no such thing as the United States Air Force. Where are you really from?”

“Ain't isn't actually a word, you know. And you ended a sentence with a preposition. The General would have you on that.”

“General who?” snapped a voice from the corner.

“That you, Brylcreem?” Sam squinted through the tobacco cloud.

Did she really say that out loud? This stuff really did take the edge off your inhibitions. Not that she thought of herself as being inhibited so much as controlled, analytical and—

“Where is this general?”

Now that was a good question. “Truthfully?” Sam thought about that for several moments. “In orbit, probably, but as to whether he's in the flying disc or the cigar shaped model, I can't be sure because I have no idea of how long I've been out. Anyone got the time?”

A considerable amount of muttering followed before Brylcreem came out with a question laced with enough sarcasm to make his successor, Kinsey, sound like a rank amateur. “So, you arrived in a cigar shaped flying saucer, and your general took off in the disc shaped saucer.”

Oooh, that was a doozy, and she could finally let fly on the sanctimonious SOB because it really didn't matter, what with the timeline already being messed and all. She smiled. “Cigar shaped saucer? Try again, Brylcreem. It's either a saucer or a cigar.”

“What are you here for?”

“Illudium phozdex.”

Barely half a second later, something came flying out of the darkness—not a saucer or a cigar—and slapped her with enough force to toss her out of the chair and onto the floor.

Hand. Had to be a hand, and not that much force, really, but since they hadn't bothered with tying her to the chair, rolling with the hit was a better option than getting whiplash. The sting was already fading. These guys really were amateurs compared to the torture she'd undergone at the hands of pathological mass murderers. One of them—not Brylcreem or Cancer Man, of course—was apologizing to her and helping her to her feet.

“Those cuffs necessary?” someone else—sounded like the guy who'd sniggered—asked in a louder voice.

“I told you, I'll do the interrogating, Bennett!” Cancer Man barked harshly and then turned back to Sam. “Where are you stationed?”

Bennett, huh. Cancer Man was giving away a hell of a lot more than he was getting. When she didn't answer, a second, considerably less forceful slap knocked her in the other direction. This time she caught her foot under the leg of the chair so that it came down on top of her as she fell. Something must've bumped the lamp, too, because the pool of dingy light wobbled around, revealing cigarette butts all over the manky-carpeted floor. Ink stained, too, and smelling like dust and blood. Didn't they have cleaners in this place? “You said shut up!” she objected, not bothering to get to her feet. “Make up your mind.”

“That's enough,” Bennett said, stepping into the light. He was wearing tan khakis and a Naval officer's uniform with full commander's stripes. “You're not going to get anywhere like this.”

“Where are you stationed?” Brylcreem elbowed past him.

“Cheyenne Mountain.” She lowered her voice. Good Cop, also dressed in the tan khakis but wearing a staff sergeant's stripes, gently helped her up and righted the seat. “Deeeeep underground. Deep space, too. Better than DC.” Screwing up her nose, she sat on the chair and added, “Much more fun. That's the problem with people like you, Brylcreem, you're jealous. Took me a while to figure it out, but yep, that's what it is. We get to go off-world and we stick together; we're a team, which, I suspect, is complete anathema to you. And I right, guys?” she called to the crowd at large.

“Where are the rest of your Commie pals?”

“Chekhov... The Korolev...” The sudden emotion bit with an intensity far sharper than any backhander Cancer Man could deliver.

She thought she'd dealt with it, put it past her, collected the scattered remnants of her emotions along with the equally scattered remnants of the once magnificent fleet. And it had been magnificent, something she'd felt privileged to see as she'd floated there in space off the edge of the Supergate—until the indescribably huge vortex erupted. That had made her feel like a bug, tiny, and so insignificant that she'd been utterly ignored by the massive Ori ships that had come through, behemoths smashing apart the defending fleet like brittle tin soldiers.

The utter sense of isolation and helplessness that followed was nothing like she'd ever experienced before. Earth was now undefended as she'd sat there, floating around with nothing to do but contemplate the depth of her failure. If she'd just been a little faster, a little smarter... “All gone,” she replied in a cracked whisper. “All dead and gone.”

“What? The Ruskies?'

“Everyone. Never stood a chance.” She was getting bored with all these stupid questions, and this timeline was messed up so she really didn't much care. “Felt a whole lot better after Teal'c lured that ship into the Supergate.”

She gave the shadows a speculative look. “Did you know Rodney once blew up an entire solar system? I did, too—well, just a sun, but it took out the system—still, mine was on purpose. Of course you wouldn't know about any of that. Hasn't happened yet.” And it never would, because she was going to be beamed out of here any minute and then this timeline was going to find itself nipped in the bud.

That thought made her smile. Nip Brylcreem and Cancer Man in the bud.

“What was that creature you helped escape?”

“Ooooh, you can't call them creatures. No, no, no. And not 'it', either. They don't like that. It's the whole reproductive issue, you know?”

“Tell me what it is!”

Sam lifted her cuffed hands to scratch her cheek, surprised to find flakes of dried blood. “You hit me with a gun!” She peered around at the shadows, offended. Yeah, they must have given her something stronger then scopolamine otherwise she was darned certain she'd be in a whole lot more pain.

The staff sergeant who'd helped her to the chair—twice—practically begged her, “Ma'am, what's the space man's name?”

Maybe the sergeant really didn't like seeing anyone beaten up. He was hardly more than a kid. Wouldn't last long in the NID, that's for sure, but she took pity on him and answered. “An.”

“An,” Brylcreem echoed.

“That's what I said, An.”

“And what?”

“What's on third.” Oh, that was priceless. Brylcreem and Cancer Man as Abbot and Costello. She giggled. “Who's on first, I think.”

Before the expected slap tore through the curls of smoke and collected her cheek again, a door banged open someplace off to her left, utterly ruining the ambiance of the B-grade interrogation. “Aw, and we were just getting to the best part!”

The drugs were beginning to wear off, too. She knew that because nausea slammed into her when two of the goons turned from what looked to be a very tense conversation with the new arrivals, and jerked her to her feet. Must be the sudden elevation, she thought. Lack of oxygen.

That didn't make any sense, either, but over the objections of Bennett, the goons were pulling her out of the pool of light and into a gray walled holding room. The nausea was intense now, but she had to control it, had to focus on where she was. Government issue desk, complete with a telephone and blotter, and lots of wooden filing cabinets and windows with dust and dead moths piled in the corners. One side the office was glass paneled, and looked out on to a bullpen—which seemed to be filled with noise and confusion. While some people were shouting and running around, others bunched up at the windows, looking outside and pointing.

God, she just wanted to throw up. She could feel her knees going, but a couple of guys grabbed her shoulders and jerked her to her feet. Soon; had to throw up soon because it might help to clear her head. It wasn't as if it would be the first time she'd lost control of her stomach contents under interrogation. Generally made the interrogators feel like they'd achieved something, and she'd gotten over the whole dignity thing the very first time she'd stepped through the 'gate.

A perfect opportunity presented itself when a red-faced Brylcreem grabbed her jaw and twisted her head around to spit some question or other in her face. Well, it wasn't as if she hadn't warned him. She took the weight on her feet just long enough so that her head was level with his, opened her mouth, and then let fly.

Although the goons immediately released her, Good Cop—the staff sergeant—grabbed her before her legs could buckle, but his hands were supportive rather than restraining. Three or four heaves later, most of it was out of her system, Brylcreem was gone, her handcuffs had been removed and she was being helped across to one of the windows.

Sam vaguely recognized the location, but couldn't quite place it. Not DC, nope. New York...yeah, that was it. The sun was just up, and judging from the angle, they were overlooking Central Park West.

Something about that jogged her memory. The report on the NID, something about offices in New York. She quickly checked her left arm and confirmed that her surgically implanted tracking device was still in place. If An could get the transport working, sooner or later she'd be beamed out of there.

“What the hell are they?” Cancer Man demanded keeping his distance but pointing to a commotion on the far side of the park. Fifth Avenue, from what she could tell, or maybe Park Drive North. Probably where all the sirens and noise was coming from, too...except people in the street below were also running and screaming and the traffic was starting to back up.

Air raid sirens bellowed nearby. Sam blinked and squinted against the muck in her eyes when a couple of trees exploded in the direction of the turtle pond and something shot out between the remaining foliage and straight up into the sky.

Oh.

Maybe the jumper getting her out of there would come later rather than sooner, given that the General couldn't cloak and shield simultaneously. She turned to Cancer Man with a malicious smile. “You're screwed.”

His face twisted. “Are those Russian fighters?”

Sam snorted and shook her head. Despite the adrenaline she still had a whole mess of drugs running through her system, otherwise she wouldn't be enjoying herself nearly this much. “You want the truth? Fine.” She turned to address the others, a mixture of dark suits and uniforms, which told her a whole lot more about members of the military being secretly involved with the NID. “What you are seeing, gentlemen, is a squadron of 'gate -capable death gliders which, I assume, means that the front entrance of the Met has just undergone a massive refurbishment, and the Egyptian sun god—or god wannabe, more precisely—Ra, is invading Earth.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Jack finished eating the breakfast bar from the MRE, pushed the packaging to one side, and, sipping his coffee, looked up into the star-filled desert sky. It was kind of sparse compared to the view from planets closer to the galactic core. The moon, a few days past full, hung low in the sky, its face pockmarked from passing debris and not, as was commonly the case on other moons, bombardment from Ha'taks controlled by squabbling Goa'uld.

Funny how that altered viewpoint never struck him as odd anymore.

In the distance a coyote let out a long, plaintiff howl. A reply echoed a moment later. Along with the chirrup of night insects, the sounds offered him a reassurance that despite the circumstances of their being here, there was a sense of peace in the world, something that he hadn't felt in...too long.

The sense of urgency to get Carter out of the NID's clutches hadn't left him, but they'd been down this particular road before. From what he'd heard through Carter's radio, the Army was under the assumption they'd been attacked by a bunch of Russian spies trying to retrieve an experimental plane and some weird biological weapon. That suited Jack just fine. They'd be mightily pissed off, and the red phone to the Kremlin was probably running hot right now, but it was a situation over which the military would feel it had control, and the incident with the control tower notwithstanding, Carter's being there confirmed that the entire alien thing was bogus.

Despite Jack's knee-jerk reaction to hearing the weapon fire, Daniel was right. The last thing the NID would be doing was shooting the one person who could provide answers to the sort of technology that had made An vanish in a beam of light.

A string of expletives put an end to his thoughts, and simultaneously silenced the crickets. Jack looked around to see Daniel limping in his direction, his glasses glinting in the moonlight.

“How's the leg?”

“Same as your ribs, I'm guessing.”

“Coffee?” Jack reached for the pot. He'd built the fire earlier in the evening partly because it was chilly at night up in the Guadalupe Mountains, but mostly because he'd been tense and bored and campfire coffee always tasted better than when the stuff was brewed over a stove.

Daniel nodded and muttered another curse as he sat down on the other side of the fire. “An's finally managed to install the transport into the jumper, but only after he had to fix more damage than a few bumpy landings would account for. That's not the problem, though. He's just found out why there's been a power supply problem with his escape pod.”

“Don't tell me. Loki's been a busy little Asgard.” Pickling was too good for that little SOB. He poured a cup and handed it Daniel.

“Thanks. Looks like he did-exactly the same thing to it as he did to the systems in the jumper. On the plus side, there's enough power to locate Sam via her transponder. Just not enough to beam her aboard.” He paused just long enough to take a sip before adding, “Well, that's not entirely true. An thinks if we get close enough he could beam part of her aboard.”

Thinking he'd misheard, Jack said, “Part? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“He recommended her head, which would of course allow him to transfer her consciousness to a clone. I explained that we don't have a spare clone of Sam lying around anyplace, so that option is off the table.”

Jack shoved the dying embers around, digesting that news. They'd just wasted a night when they could have used the confusion on the base to break in and get Carter out of there.

“And the time machine is beyond hope,” Daniel added, seemingly as an afterthought. “Loki made absolutely certain of that.”

“And the good news?” Jack looked up.

“Did I mention there was good news?” Daniel balanced the cup on the rocky ground, pulled off his glasses and began polishing the lenses with a handkerchief, something he only ever did when he couldn't see his way through a problem.

“There's always a Plan B, Daniel.” Jack emptied the remainder of the pot onto the fire, watching it sizzle and steam as it hit the embers. As much as the entire situation pissed him off, they still had a few aces up their sleeve, and Carter would be playing every one of them.

“On the upside, the Asgard transport will allow us to pinpoint her exact location.”

It was in Daniel's tone, but he wasn't going to come right out with it, so Jack did. “She's not dead, Daniel. You said it yourself, the NID wouldn't have shot her.”

When he didn't reply, Jack decided to let it slide. Until they'd recovered Sam, Mitchell and Vala, Daniel was going to keep blaming himself for everything that had gone wrong and there wasn't a damned thing that he could say or do to change that.

“If it's any consolation, An wanted you to know that the reason why the transport locked on to his signal and transported him into the pod instead of Sam, is a failsafe. An's physically smaller. Chances were that if you'd managed to beam Sam aboard, not all of her would have made it.”

“Okay.” Jack used the rock to ease himself to his feet, then kicked grit on to the remains of the fire.

Something moving through the night sky caught his eye. Daniel must have noticed the direction of his gaze as well, because he turned and looked up at the cluster of meteorites. It was a common enough site on any clear night, especially when you were parked in the desert miles from the nearest city lights, but then Jack remembered the date, and couldn't help but smile. “July 8.”

Daniel glanced at him. “So?”

“The July Pegasids.”

He was silent for a moment, and then, “You should go see Atlantis sometime.”

“I was about to make that very suggestion. We find Carter, get her out, and then go to plan B.”

The sound of footsteps drew his attention back to the jumper. Teal'c emerged and came across to join them.

“We ready to go?” Jack asked with a last glance at the dead fire. All things considered they weren't in bad shape.

Teal'c inclined his head in the affirmative.

Daniel downed the last of his coffee as they walked to the jumper. “What are we gonna do about the escape pod?”

An had parked the thing just inside the entrance to an old mineshaft. Jack stood on the hatch of the jumper, lifted his zat and fired at the clump of loose rocks over the entrance. The rickety timbers collapsed and he closed the hatch before the jumper filled with a wave of dust that rolled out of the mine. “If it's still here in sixty years, we can come back for it with a U-haul.”

An was seated in the copilot's chair, examining the readout on Carter's laptop and muttering to himself. Slipping into the pilot's seat, Jack noticed that the stars had already winked out and the eastern horizon was streaked with pale yellow. He swallowed back a yawn and powered up the jumper. “Have I got enough juice to cloak?” he asked An.

“Only if you dispense with shields.”

“Weapons?”

An blinked at him, which was the first really Asgardy thing he'd done since Jack had beamed him out of the NFD's clutches.

“Just checking.” Under Jack's hands, the jumper came to life. He still couldn't quite get used to the idea that the machine read his mind, but flying it was, literally, like taking a walk in the park. “Okay, we stay cloaked all the way in, and then put this down on the roof of whatever building she's in.”

“Then what?” Daniel asked.

Jack tapped his shoulders. “Two stars, Daniel.”

“You think the NID will just hand her over? Besides, what if one of those MPs recognizes us.”

“That's what the zats are for.”

Within minutes, he had the Roswell Army Air Field in sight. “You picking up Carter's signal, yet?”

The lack of response from the Asgard wasn't the least bit reassuring. Neither was the squadron of what Jack was almost certain were P-51 Mustangs headed straight for them, because the jumper was supposed to be cloaked.

Actually, that didn't bother him as much as—

“O'Neill.”

“I see 'em, Teal'c.”

“See what...? Oh, oh,” said Daniel.

Three of the P-51s exploded in rapid succession as a pair of Stargate capable death gliders fired on them.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

“The doctors say pneumonia has set in and they do not expect him to live much longer. He's asking for you.” Even in the darkness, Vala could see the hesitation in Howard Carter's stance, as if he had not fully comprehended the secretary's words. The vastness of the Egyptian desert night seemed to dwarf even the pyramids, and the whole eerie place filled Vala with reminders of her past she could have well done without. Still, it wouldn't be much longer now, she hoped, and Earth of the past, with its erroneous timeline, its low technology and its wretched fashions—what sane woman dressed like this in the desert on any other world?—would be well behind them.

“There...there must be some mistake,” the archeologist said, shaking his head. “He wasn't that ill...”

“Sir, Lord Carnarvon is dying,” the man assured him. “And he wishes to see you.”

Carter seemed torn between duty to a man he had come to love as a brother, and the curiosity that had driven him to follow Vala and Cam to the Giza plateau this night to witness something remarkable. His uncomprehending gaze turned to Vala.

Sensing his hesitation, she felt a wave of panic. Oh no you don't! You 're not going to bail on us now. Grasping his arm and pulling him close, she said, “Promise me, Howard. You'll wait until we're through before you go.”

“But if Lord Carnarvon is really dying...”

“Then you're not likely to be able to save him,” she pointed out a little more heartlessly than she meant to. She smiled, and added in a low voice, “You must replace the capstone exactly as we found it, and rebury the 'gate face down the moment we've gone. If you don't, Ra will return and this planet will endure a horror far greater than anything you could possibly Imagine.” She glanced over her shoulder at Cam, but couldn't read his expression in the torchlight. “This is more important than one man dying, Howard. This is your chance to save the whole human race.”

One of the many theories that she and Cam had discussed was that upon reaching Brown University and rectifying their mistake, they would cease to exist because the timeline would have been restored. So her warning to Howard that he must rebury the 'gate might be rather pointless, except...

Based on his knowledge of SG-l's files, and several conversations with Samantha Carter, Cam was concerned that this newly budded timeline might continue to exist as a parallel world. In all good conscience they couldn't risk leaving the front door wide open for Ra.

Once they returned to 1908 and discreetly rectified the ovent that changed everything, they couldn't afford to stay in 1908, of course, otherwise they would alter history again. And they could not go forward to 2006 because, as had happened when SG-1 team members from parallel worlds had inadvertently been directed to Earth, their dual existence in that world would eventually lead to all manner of nasty problems for her and Cam. The solution appeared quite simple. She and Cam would travel forward in time several hundred years.

Sadly, all of that meant that she would never see Daniel Jackson again. But then she and Cam had accepted that fate long ago, and things had worked themselves out between them in a way that had surprised them both. And in truth, she was rather looking forward to getting back out there in the big, wide universe. Fourteen years in one place had been excruciatingly trying.

Blinking in the light from the torch fires, his message delivered, Lord Carnarvon's new secretary—his previous secrotary had died within days of opening of Tutankhamen's tomb—looked around the dig suspiciously.

“Isn't this area under Dr. Langford's concession?”

Cam stepped up beside the secretary and clapped him on the shoulder. “You should head back to Cairo, son. If Carnarvon's dying, he'll need your help.” The faint shimmer of light silhouetting the pyramids was the only clue to their proximity to the city.

“But... I don't understand any of this. What are you doing here? You don't have a permit to be digging this area.”

“We have a special permit.”

“What special permit?” the young man demanded.

“The green kind,” Cam explained. He pulled a wad of notes from his pocket, mostly American dollars, and shoved them in the breast pocket of the secretary's crumpled linen suit. He might as well be rid of them, Vala thought. They weren't going be worth anything where they were headed.

“There. That should cover any inconvenience.” Cam let go of the secretary and stepped up to the rim of the pit where the Stargate had been buried, to join Vala and Howard Carter who were watching the workers check the rack of pulley blocks. The familiar ring, currently attached to the blocks by dozens of ropes, lifted reluctantly away from its capstone.

Oblivious to the profound nature of the event he was about to witness, the secretary glared up at Cam, highly offended. “Do you actually think you can bribe me into ignoring what's going on here?” he called after him.

Cam glanced back over his shoulder as he came to stand beside Vala and Carter. “Sure I do.”

“Some people aren't so easily bought, you know!”

“Then more fool you. After tonight, every one of these diggers, the guards and drivers will be able to retire.” Turning to Howard, he added, “So should you, by the way.”

“I'm afraid I don't understand, either,” Carter said with a puzzled expression.

“We left an envelope for you back at the hotel, with information that's also in the hands of our lawyers,” Vala told him. “I hate to break it to you, my dear, but apparently Lord Carnarvon didn't bequeath you much. All goes to the family estate, you know.”

“What did you say?” The secretary must have heard that last part. He scrambled up the earthworks behind them, a horrified expression on his face. “How could you possibly know any-thing of Lord Carnarvon's affairs?”

“Cam, dear, do we really have time for this?”

“Not really.”

She smiled brightly. “We could push him in front of the event horizon when the wormhole opens.”

“Don't tempt me.” Cam grinned back at her. He was trying to be cool about it, but all these years stranded in this timeline had been driving him crazy. The thought that they were only minutes away from gating out of here and putting things to rights had him bursting with anticipation.

Having discussed the logistics of this at great length, they had opted to raise the Stargate from the capstone, and then case it backward onto the ground rather than waste time trying to keep it supported upright. For one thing, it would have taken days to stabilize the 'gate so that it didn't tip over during the dialing sequence. Just as importantly, if by chance some Goa'uld took it into its scaly hermaphroditic head to check the Tau'ri 'gate before she and Cam managed to leave, it'd be in for a nasty surprise. Nothing quite as squishy as the fate of the Jaffa they'd seen embedded in the capstone, of course, but travel through the wormhole was a one-way proposition, and falling back into the event horizon would prove equally deadly.

The only downside to that was the hand DHD wouldn't operate while the 'gate was in a horizontal position—a safety feature, no doubt—however the bezel could be rotated manually.

For a brief moment, the Stargate stood fully upright. Through the silent gray ring you could see the stars. Of all the people here tonight, perhaps only Cam and herself, Vala realized, understood that through this ring you could travel to them, too.

On Cam's signal, the Stargate was eased backward. After a few anxious moments, it fell to the ground the last foot or so, hitting the sand with a resounding thud that reverberated through their feet. Ignoring the argument between Carnarvon's pompous little secretary and Carter, Vala watched Cam connect the power to the 'gate, then order the men to rotate the ring. The first chevron locked into place—which promptly sent most of the diggers scurrying backward. “Bish-mil-la!” several cursed. “In the name of God!”

Howard and the weedy, rat-faced secretary also stumbled backward and gasped.

“Mafi mushkillah” Vala called reassuringly to the diggers. “It's not a problem. We told you this would happen, remember?” But in fact, this could indeed be a problem. If this was their reaction to a little amber glow, the unstable vortex would give them a collective heart attack. They must rebury the 'gate.

“Sora-sora!” Cam called to the diggers. “Hurry! We don't have much time. I'll double the pay of every man here, all right?”

The lure of wealth beyond their wildest dreams was a potent motivator. She and Cam had argued about how much of their wealth Cam had given away to get them here this night, although, in the end, provided it was currency they couldn't use off-world, she didn't see the harm in it. It just irked her in principal, that's all. Having gone to all the trouble of becoming fabulously wealthy, it didn't seem right to just leave it behind.

Cam viewed their wealth far differently to Vala. To him it was, and always had been, simply a means to an end. At least he'd had the common sense to let her bring some portable assets—gold and jewels, and the like—with them. While she had no compunction in stealing a 'gate-capable death glider, bribing the locals on the planet where they were headed should be a considerably faster and much less complicated way of accessing the ship, for all concerned.

Not that she would never actually admit it to anyone, of course, but there was a remote possibility that fourteen years on this miserable little planet may have slightly impacted her reaction time—from lack of practice, of course. Certainly it had absolutely nothing to do with age.

The second chevron locked into place, and Howard, curiosity outweighing fear, inched forward again. “Those stories you told me about the Egyptian gods. I thought...I thought—”

“That I had an over-active imagination? Or that I was perhaps a tad, you know, loony-tunes?” Vala still didn't fully understand the cultural significance of 'loony-tunes' but like so many other such references that Cam had used over the years, she'd added it to her lexicon.

Apparently Howard didn't understand the cultural reference, either, because he looked at her rather oddly. Anything he might have said was forgotten when she produced from beneath the ugly folds of her 1922 designer dress, the gold cuff that had once belonged to Whipple Van Buren, Howard Lovecraft's grandfather.

Howard Lovecraft, of course, had gone on to become a professor of chemistry and rocketry or some such, and it had recently been announced that he would be the recipient of a Nobel Prize. Her only regret was that there'd been no time to visit him in Rhode Island before they'd left for Egypt. Still, she and Cam had bequeathed their mansion to him in their will, with a one-line note explaining that they were finally going home.

That thought made Vala smile. He'd definitely get a kick out of that.

The third chevron revolved into position with a loud chunk, and Cam warned everyone yet again that before the final chevron was dialed, they must all step outside the 'well' because a great geyser would erupt from the center.

The looks on most of the workers' faces suggested that they had no idea what a geyser was, but the tone of Cam's voice was backed up by the promise that he would cut by half the pay of anyone who did not move away swiftly.

Which would be the least of the men's problems if they didn't scoot back, but Vala wasn't going to volunteer that bit of information or else she and Cam would be dialing the final coordinate themselves. Nor was she going to mention that Cam did not have any way of enforcing exactly who was paid what, because the lawyers, bless their larcenous little hearts, were all at home right now in their beds.

The portable DHD device shone brightly in the glow from the fires. Howard Carter stared open mouthed as she slipped the cuff over her hand. Detecting the naquadah in her blood, the device came alive, its center crystal glowing. The subtle neural connection in her mind was awakened. What felt like an instinctual knowledge was in fact knowledge acquired from the Goa'uld, but Vala's understanding of how to use the DHD had been well honed by years of practice with the healing hand device.

A vague spark of guilt enveloped her. She could easily have healed Carnarvon's infected mosquito bite, but to do so, Cam had reminded her, would profoundly alter history. Given how many other things had gone wrong, she didn't see that it made much difference, but Cam was adamant and fourteen years of being “Mrs. Mitchell” had taught her what that meant.

Old Lord Carnarvon was due to die this night, in exactly... She glanced at the diamond and pearl wristwatch that Louis Cartier had personally made for her. Two minutes—plus or minus. While her watch was synchronized with the timepiece at Greenwich, she couldn't say the same for the clock in the Cairo hospital that had been used to record the time of Carnarvon's death. And how Cam remembered that particular detail when he'd forgotten the actual year of Carnarvon's death was not as much of a complete mystery to her as she'd led Cam to think.

Ignoring the gritty, scraping sound, the diggers rotated the bezel until the fifth chevron slid into place.

Sending the wormhole to Earth, 1908, was out of the question. Exiting against a capstone beneath the Egyptian sands was  really, really not something they'd wanted to have happen. And while the remote DHD would allow her to subtly alter the tack of the wormhole so that it instead acquired the Antarctic 'gate, arriving there in 1908 wouldn't have been much better. Short of hitching a ride with Ernest Shackleton—and then only after finding their way out of the bottom of the glacier and making a tiresome trek across an inhospitable landscape that was in the early throws of winter—was about the only way out of Antarctica in this time. Going anywhere that cold wasn't her idea of fun, especially after so many miserable winter nights in Highclere Castle.

Which is why they had decided to travel to another planet, first.

Vala knew for a fact that there was a 'gate-capable glider stashed away about three miles from the 'gate, because the local villagers had been worshipping the damned thing for almost a century. With a 'gate-capable glider in hand, returning to Earth 1908 via Antarctica was an entirely different proposition.

The final chevron was proving somewhat difficult, doubtless because an excessive quantity of sand was jamming the mechanism, but finally it, too, locked into place and a familiar eruption of noise and boiling water shot upward. It immediately fell back and settled into a very welcome shimmering glow as the diggers cried out with terror, calling to Allah to preserve them from whatever terrifying beast hid beneath the strangely lit waters. Those few men present who'd carried with them the dark secrets of generations long dead; secrets they had—until this moment—thought nothing more than childhood fairytales, screamed and ran off into the night, imploring gods far older than Allah to protect them from the wrath of Ra.

“The lights! The lights of Cairo have gone out!” came a shrill call from some distance away.

Catching Howard's stunned expression in the sapphire light, Vala smiled. “We did mention that might happen.”

“Take me with you,” he said, his expression torn between terror and wonder. “I need to see for myself. I need to know if it's all really true.”

She looked to Cam for help but he'd slid down the short slope and was negotiating with the head digger, whose eyes were all but popping from his head at the sight of the worm-hole. “The balance of the money will only be payable if you rebury the 'gate with the capstone, exactly as you found it,” she heard him telling the wide-eyed foreman. “Do you understand me? Our lawyers have been given clear instructions to pay all of the men who help you in this, triple the original amount promised.”

“Vala...please...”

She shook her head and walked down the slope to the 'gate. “I don't think you'd like where we're going, Howard.” Vala glanced over her shoulder at Cam and called out. “Thirty-eight minutes isn't that long when you spend it gossiping, you know!” She turned to Howard, who had walked down with her. He was staring at her with imploring eyes.

“Truly, you don't want to follow us.” As she spoke, Vala unbuttoned her dress and pulled off the gown to reveal the BDUs, flak jacket and boots that she'd kept safely hidden away all these years. They were just as ugly in their own way, but eminently more practical. And at last, she could free herself of the damned dress. “I'm sorry, Howard, but we don't really belong in this time, anymore than you belong in ours. If you come with us, you'll upset history.”

The foreman taken care of, Cam was coming to join them, shedding his early 20th century clothing while he walked. “Vala's right, Howard,” he added. “You really, really do not want to come face to face with what's out there.” He pointed to the imprints of the jackal-headed Jaffa on the capstone. “They genuinely are the Hounds of Hell, and there's plenty more where they came from, so be a good chap and lock the 'gate behind us.”

Vala stepped up to the rim of the 'gate and tossed three of their packs through. Beside her, Cam activated his zat gun, glanced around once, winked at her, then crouched down and dove in.

With a final reassuring smile to Howard Carter, Vala waved to the workers, blew a kiss to Howard, and followed Cam.

The landing on the other side was exactly as expected. They rolled out onto the grassy ground. The wormhole winked out of existence behind them and then she was standing beside... Oh, crap.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

“Okay, we're out of here,” Jack announced as the ground beneath them fell away at an alarming rate.

Alarming, because Daniel distinctly remembered that the jumper didn't currently have much in the way of life support. “Jack, where are we going?”

By the time the words were out if his mouth, Daniel figured they were already passing the point where the atmosphere held any oxygen whatsoever.

Ignoring him, Jack turned to An. “That thing picking up Carter's signal, yet?”

“No.”

The jumper continued to climb. Daniel wasn't entirely certain there was any atmosphere to speak of at this height, because for the second time that night, the stars were no longer twinkling. “Jack, how long do you think the air lasts in, oh, say, an area about the size of a jumper? Not that I'm worried or anything. Just thought I'd mention it.”

“Daniel, Carter's not in Roswell. I'm not running all over the United States at twelve thousand feet trying to locate her, uncloaked and weaponless, with Ra's goon squad on my six.”

He had a point. “How high are we going?”

“Three thousand miles should just about cover the area they could have taken her during the night—”

“I have acquired Colonel Carter's signal,” An announced, popping a tiny green food cube into his mouth.

Daniel was certain the Asgard had brought a stash of food from his escape pod, because he'd been downing the stuff like M&Ms while installing the transport. A red food cube occasionally made its way into his mouth as well, but it was generally accompanied by a sound of disgust.

“Where?” Jack leaned across the DHD consol to peer at the Sam's laptop screen, which An had rigged up in addition to his own Asgard version of an LCD.

From where Daniel was sitting he could just make out a blip that looked to be in the area of... “Terrific. New York. Why'd they take her there?”

“The NID had offices in New York. Right now, I'm more worried about why Ra—assuming that it is Ra—sent a couple of death gliders to Roswell.”

While Jack talked, the jumper began to descend over upstate New York. The signal bleeped reassuringly on the screen, although An shook his head and mumbled to himself.

“Can I adjust the setting on this?” Daniel asked him.

The Asgard indicated he could take the entire laptop. Careful of the lead, Daniel balanced it on his legs.

“What sort of battle plan can we expect?” Jack said, directing his question to Teal'c.

“I do not believe it is Ra who has come through the 'gate, O'Neill. He would have entrusted the task of conquering Earth to a Goa'uld loyal to him. Knowing that the Tau'ri of this time have no weapons capable of striking a Ha'tak in orbit, it is most likely that the Goa'uld in question will oversee the invasion from there, while ground forces are sent through the Stargate. Under such circumstances the strategy would be to destroy all opposing forces by quickly removing the Tau'ri leaders.”

“Doesn't explain the death gliders over Roswell,” Jack said.

“Did Colonel Carter not say that Earth's entire arsenal of nuclear weapons in 1947 is stored at Roswell?”

Since the death-gliders could only have arrived through the 'gate a short time ago... “How could Ra possibly know...” Daniel trailed off, realizing why Jack's shoulders had just stiffened.

Sam had known about the nukes. Jack, too, since it was a milestone in the history if the USAF, which meant that Mitchell could also have known. Given all the other strategic targets, the only reason Roswell would have been prioritized was if the Goa'uld had acquired advance knowledge. And the only way that could have happened was if Mitchell had been captured sometime in the twenty-five years since he'd stepped through the 'gate with Vala.

Daniel bit back a groan. It wouldn't have mattered how well Cam had resisted interrogation, a few sessions with a hand device or worse—and far more likely—infestation with a Goa'uld would have stripped his mind clean. “DC and the Naval base at Virginia will also be targeted.”

“Post WWII, Daniel, the entire country's a target rich environment. One thing's for certain, the air space over the East Coast is gonna get real crowded, real fast.”

From what Daniel could see as they descended, it already was. Even from this height, it looked as if whole sections of New York City were on fire.

“The President of the United States was scheduled to fly to Santa Fe early this morning to discuss the Roswell situation with Senator Chavez,” Teal'c informed them.

His voice didn't betray any tension, but Daniel had spent too many years with Teal'c not to feel it.

“Which means that even if the Goa'uld take out DC, the President will still be able to direct a military response,” Jack replied.

It had taken Daniel a long time to understand that what appeared to be cold detachment was in fact a professional barrier that both his teammates employed to encapsulate their emotions, enabling them to function under the most traumatic of circumstances.

He'd managed to acquire a certain level of professional detachment himself, over the years, but inside that capsule a part of him still wanted to scream and cry at the horrors they had witnessed. Right now, he dreaded what they would find on the ground, but they had to find Sam. And they had to get her out.

The issue they were facing was that the entire area would be a bloody battlefield for days if not weeks. A war-hardened United States military would pound back with equal—if not superior—force so long as they were only dealing with ground troops and 'gate-capable death gliders. The moment something bigger arrived on the scene, they were screwed. Unfortunately, Teal'c probably was right, because death gliders alone couldn't be imparting the level of damage he could now see.

New York fell out of sight behind them as Jack continued north in the direction of the Adirondacks. “We're half blind without a HUD,” he explained. “I'll come in upwind from the north, along the Hudson.”

“I have lost the signal,” An reported when they descended to tree top level.

The blip on the computer screen winked out. Me too,” Daniel said, feeling a sense of panic grip him.

Jack's head snapped around. “What? Why?”

“I believe it is because we are now below the horizon. The beaming technology was not designed to be operated from this proximity to the ground.”

Taking a deep breath, Daniel nodded. That explanation made sense because the jumper had descended to within a few yards of the muddy water, churned and frothy from summer rains. Jack brought them around to face the south. Ahead, the cloudless summer sky above New York was filled with hundreds of tiny black dots buzzing one another. Sharp flashes of light—energy weapons—were swiftly followed by fiery eruptions and puffs of black smoke. A dark smudge blurred the entire horizon; it was the smoke from scores of fires they'd seen as they'd passed overhead.

Daniel had seen similar sights before, on many—too many—planets across the galaxy. But this was his planet, his home, even if it wasn't his time. And it was his fault. Earth was now under attack because he'd left Mitchell and Vala behind. Seeing New York in flames was far more personal, more immediate and therefore palpably more meaningful than the brief hours he'd spent in parallel worlds. No matter how hard he tried to construct that barrier around his emotions, the reality of this happening to his world tore into him.

The jumper headed south at high speed, swerving now and then to avoid boats chugging hard against the swiftly moving Hudson River. Occasionally glancing outside, Daniel followed the route by watching the map on the laptop screen for several miles...until the battery warning light blinked at him. “Oh, great,” he muttered. “We never did get those Ni-cads.”

He glanced across to see that An's unit still seemed to be operational, although it was harder for him to interpret the data because the maps were based on entirely different parameters.

The number of boats they encountered began to increase, as too did the number of passengers they appeared to be carrying. When the jumper rounded the bend where the river narrowed and picked up speed on the approach to Foundry Cove, the source of a huge plume of black smoke they'd seen a few miles back became clear. West Point had been utterly demolished. A section of the embankment had also been blown apart, filling the channel with debris, which had resulted in several larger, deeper draft vessels foundering. Dozens of boats of every shape and size jostled for position behind the wreckage, while captains and pilots attempted to squeeze their vessels through the remaining, narrow channel in the otherwise wide waterway.

Jack slowed the jumper just long enough for Daniel to catch sight of the stricken and bloodied faces of the passengers crammed on the decks, clutching possessions or children. Pressed hard against the gunwales, their faces were turned to the sky with expressions of stark terror.

Along the shoreline, the situation was the same. Endless lines of cars and trucks were traveling along both lanes of roads and freeways, all headed away from New York. On Bear Mountain Bridge, traffic was at a standstill because of a blazing pile-up and people, hundreds and hundreds of people, were trudging along the shoulders of the roads, desperate to escape a nightmare beyond comprehension.

They turned into Haverstraw Bay, just as a fighter plane lacking a wing and most of its tail plummeted out of the sky and crushed into the shallows with a fiery splash and gut-wrenching finality. Debris hit the waters around it, barely missing several boats. Daniel glanced up to a sky pockmarked with WWII lighters—he had no idea what kind of aircraft they were, but he recognized their silhouettes—and death gliders engaged in dogfights. Any vague hope he might have held that the invasion had come via the Stargate alone, was shattered when he saw that most of the death gliders were not 'gate-capable, but the wide-winged ships typically carried aboard Ha'taks. This was a multi-pronged attack. Except for the fact that the battle was centered over New York, he would almost have doubted that the presence of the Stargate mattered.

Teal'c's thoughts must have been along the same lines, because he said, “When invading a planet, capture of the Stargate is considered of primary importance. They will not cease until the Goa'uld entrusted with this invasion is certain the immediate area is secure. Once this has been assured, he will set up a camp near the 'gate, and await the arrival of Ra.”

Here and there, parachutes billowed open. More often than not, the chutes just as quickly evaporated in a puff of flame, and the tiny dark figure beneath plummeted helplessly to the ground. It was becoming increasingly difficult to make out detail, however, because palls of thick black smoke were now reaching hundreds of feet into the sky. The prevailing wind was pushing the bulk of the smoke southwest, but they would soon be in the thick of it.

A streak of fire shot past, then a second, closer this time. They were now well within range of stray weapons' fire, which meant that Jack had to weigh up the odds of the jumper being inadvertently hit versus the benefits of remaining invisible. Once they were spotted, the shields wouldn't last long against concerted attack.

“I have reacquired the signal,” An reported in a voice devoid of emotion. Whatever trauma the Asgard had suffered seemed to be behind him, now. If anything, Daniel suspected that, as much as it was possible for an Asgard, An was simmering over Loki's actions. The entire time he'd been installing the transport into the jumper, he'd been muttering about ungrateful opportunistic students.

The jumper descended further until they were literally skimming the water's surface, weaving in and out between ships filled with passengers desperate to escape New York. Why these boats hadn't fled via the harbor, Daniel had no idea... until a gust of wind cleared a section of smoke long enough to reveal a pair of Al'Kesh hovering over the mangled remains of Tappan Zee Bridge.

Jack muttered an expletive. The Al'Kesh were calmly shooting at ships moving upriver, like fish in a barrel.

This wasn't a battle; it was a massacre.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

A bucket of cold water. Good grief, Cancer Man and his pals had no imagination whatsoever.

The last thing Sam remembered prior to being saturated was a closed fist coming straight at her, and a shouted warning from Commander Bennett. She'd tried to roll with the punch but must have cracked her head on something—probably one of the wooden filing cabinets—on the way down. Either that, or they'd injected her with more drugs because the bitter taste in her mouth was more than just blood.

“I want answers!”

The voice cracked on the last syllable, but Sam recognized it as Cancer Man's. A couple of goons dragged her to her feet and she realized she was still in the same office, except that the glass windows had been shattered, filing cabinets were on the floor with papers spilled all over the place, and the air was filled with fine dust, all of which told Sam that something had exploded nearby.

Before she could get her bearings, Cancer Man let fly with a closed fist, but since no one was currently restraining her, she ducked and swung an elbow into his solar plexus, and followed through with a left hook into his nose for good measure. There was no satisfying crunch under her balled fist, so she hadn't broken anything, however the grunt of pain following by a wheezing breathlessness more than made up for it. With any luck, he'd be unable to talk for several minutes.

Still unsteady on her feet, she knew she wouldn't get far with half a dozen trained soldiers surrounding her, not to mention a whole room full of... Exactly where was she anyway?

The staff sergeant, who looked about eighteen years old, grabbed her arms again, but there was little real force in it.

“What the hell are you doing, Agent?” yelled a voice from behind her.

Ignoring him, Sam said, “Personally, I really don't give a damn what happens to you, but right now you need to wake up to the fact that I am not lying.”

“Then what the hell is going on? Are you some sort of... alien?”

Sam now recognized the voice from behind as coming from Commander Bennett.

Cancer Man was still struggling for air, grasping the windowsill and staring daggers at her.

“No.” Dragging the young sergeant's hand along with her, she brushed past Cancer Man and pointed through the windows to two...no, three companies of jackal-helmeted Jaffa spanning out and heading in their direction. “But those are. And they're Ra's troops, all right.”

She turned back to the men, and, with her head rapidly clearing, realized that the bullpen was the site of utter pandemonium.

The NID had kept a set of offices on Central Park West, just north of the Museum of Natural History. According to the report she'd read, they'd taken over the location from the State Department soon after WWII.

The fingers of the NID had run deep and far, but it didn't much matter, now, because from the streets below she heard the distinctive, “Jaffa! Kree!” followed by the sound of staff blasts.

Running a hand through closely cropped hair, Commander Bennett stood from behind the desk—now cluttered with maps of New York and what looked like cablegrams—pointed out the window and declared. “She's right!” With a telephone receiver still pressed to his ear, he added, “Reports coming in are saying whatever those things are, they ain't human! There's a load of cops down there shooting at them, and the bullets are just bouncing off their chests!”

Sam looked around. The fact that she had not yet been beamed out of there indicated that either the rest of SG-1 had been delayed or something had happened to them. In which case she may well be stuck here for the duration. Despite the fact that this was an NID stronghold, her choices were clear.

Ignoring the plain-clothed agents, Sam turning to the highest-ranking officer in the room, Commander Bennett, and said, “Tell the police to stop wasting their bullets and manpower and withdraw. Don't even attempt to engage the Jaffa because they'll show far less mercy than the Germans and Japanese. Standard issue weapons are not going to do more than dent their armor and draw their attention. You need to bring in—” She was about to say P-90s, but they wouldn't be invented for another half century. “You need military personnel with anti-tank guns. At close range, they might bring down some of the death fighters as well but they're going to have to be far more mobile than tanks and armored vehicles, because nothing you currently have can protect you against the blast from a staff weapon. Hand grenades are also effective against the Jaffa.”

The commander started repeating the information on the phone, then pulled the receiver from his ear and mouthing, “General Royall,” handed it to Sam. She took two strides across to the desk, grabbed the receiver, and had just begun to explain what tactics the death gliders generally used when someone grabbed her by the shoulder, jerked her around and snatched the phone from her hand.

“Let her speak,” Bennett ordered Cancer Man. “She's the only one making any sense around here—”

A nearby explosion shook the building, and the sun was momentarily blotted out. Every man in uniform hit the deck, while those in suits stood around looking bewildered.

“Get down, you morons!” Bennett yelled, ducking for cover beneath the desk. “Amateurs,” Sam heard him mutter in the eerie silence that followed.

Beside her, one of the men began to get to his feet when a second and third explosion sent dust and plaster fluttering down from the ceiling.

That had sounded like a blast from an Al'kesh.

Bent in a low crouch, Sam scrambled across the debris to the windows and cautiously lifted her head just high enough to look out. This side of Central Park was now crawling with Jaffa, which meant that hundreds, possibly thousands of troops were coming through the 'gate. But that still didn't explain... “Oh, crap.”

The last of the drugs in her system vanished under a new onslaught of adrenaline-fuelled dread.

One of her captors had crawled up beside her—the young staff sergeant, whose eyes were bulging in disbelief. She turned around and yelled, “Commander, inform General Royall to get everything they can into the air.” She thought for a moment, trying to recall what aircraft were available. “Panthers and Banshees preferably—to target the larger vessels, the Al'kesh.”

“Hey, Miss? Those planes...” Bennett gave her an odd look. “They're...they're still being built. Hell, the Navy only ordered the Banshees from McDonnell in May.”

Sam winced. Dammit! “Okay, fine. The Al'kesh—the triangular looking ships—they're troop carriers and they'll be coming in from orbit, which means your pilots and navigators are going to have to keep their eyes peeled. Al'kesh move fast and are incredibly destructive, but they're not normally shielded so any decent strike on them—concentrated fire from .50 caliber machine guns won't do it but cannon fire from an Airacobra or Airacomet—might just be enough to bring one down.”

The lack of shielding was something Sam had never been able to understand, although the Tokra and Lucien alliance had rectified the problem in the years after she'd first encountered the ships. And while the 'cobras and 'comets' cannons weren't great in aerial combat, it was all they had.

“How do we know this isn't a trick?” Cancer Man squawked.

Ignoring him, Sam continued, “If there are any Navy ships in the area, some well-placed rounds from their 16-inch guns will do the job nicely.”

Another round of explosions, this time from the lower end of Manhattan, was followed by the more shattering glass and screams from outside, then distant sirens. Sam stood and worked her way across the room to Commander Bennett, who was gripping the phone, white-knuckled but with determination written all over his face.

“Who are you?” demanded the young sergeant. “How come you know about this? Hell, they're not even planes! They don't have wings and they... they're using some sort of Martian death ray!”

“It's not a death ray. It's a...” Sam stopped and shook her head—instantly regretting that action because it reminded her she'd been knocked out cold twice within the last few hours. From the perspective of this era, it was a death ray. Through the still intact glass-dividing panel, she could see that the few people remaining in the bullpen were also picking themselves up off the floor. “I told you the truth.” She turned to the others in the room. “My name is Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, United States Air Force, and I'm from... I'm from the future.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

The Asgard scanner provided only a marginal overview of the terrain but, after a moment, Daniel identified the location. “West side of Central Park, East of the river.”

Jack's tone was clipped when he said, “What do we need to make this thing weapons' capable?”

“If you are referring to this vessel, considerably more naquadah than is available in your Zat'nikit'els,” An replied.

“But we could use naquadah, right?”

“What are you planning?” Daniel could hear the intent in Jack's voice. The professionalism was still there, but it was now edged with a different kind of determination.

The jumper slipped under an intact section of Tappen Zee causeway, and then Jack angled left to fly close to the east bank of the Hudson. Thousands of refugees along the shoreline were making their way north on foot, by bicycle and on horseback. Too many were burdened with boxes and bags, or pushed carts overloaded with furniture, grimly clutching possessions of little or no value to their survival, doubtless unprovisioned and unprepared for the coming days. Wealthy and poor alike, it made no difference now. All were embarked on a mass exodus from a terror they had yet to fully comprehend.

“Decloaking,” Jack announced seconds after they just missed being clipped by the fall of what looked to be the cockpit of a fighter. “Shield's enabled.”

While there was no visible difference to the jumper from where Daniel was sitting, he suddenly felt exposed. The chances were slim they'd draw attention from a death glider. Or even an Al'Kesh. But an alert Jaffa monitoring the situation from an orbiting Ha'tak just might notice that the fast moving object skimming along the banks of the Hudson toward downtown New York was not made of aluminum and steel, but a unique, composite material not indigenous to this planet.

Ahead of them, three more Al'Kesh appeared from within the palls of the smoke, one using its cannons to hammer away at something at the lower end of Manhattan while a second was focused on the Caven Point Army Terminal. Two huge black smoke fireballs erupted moments later from the Terminal. Daniel could only assume it had been from an oil storage container.

Not a sound penetrated the jumper, and the shields had dampened any buffeting, but that in no way lessened the impact of what they were seeing. Each shock from the explosions rippled through the smoke at the speed of sound, sending a visible wave through it, and in its path, buildings crumpled and boats were tossed around like corks in a bathtub.

The third Al'Kesh glided down over lower east Manhattan. “Looks like it's landing in Central Park,” Jack said as they sped under Washington Bridge.

This time, Daniel heard the tension in his voice. “Jack?”

“Later. Let's get Carter, first.”

Through the orange tinged smoke haze Daniel could just make out more Al'Kesh converging on Central Park. Something from the direction of the harbor fired at the Goa'uld ships. Although he couldn't see from this angle, he figured it was most likely a couple of Navy ships trying to defend the few civilian vessels that had not yet been blown out of the water. One of them scored a direct hit, and the Al'Kesh exploded in a fiery mess that rained down upon the city.

More energy weapons impacted the area around Con Ed and LaGuardia. Several massive fireballs erupted. The Goa'uld were targeting transport, power and communications networks. Recalling the earlier destruction of West Point, Daniel glanced at Teal'c. A tiny movement in the Jaffa's left cheek was the only sign of tension. None of them needed to say it. The Goa'uld had never previously demonstrated this level of strategic thinking, and only someone intimately familiar with Earth would have known precisely what to target.

The Al'Kesh now landing in Central Park would be filled to the brim with Jaffa warriors whose primary job would be to secure the Stargate and immediate area. Getting Sam out was now a race against time. Daniel's focus shifted rapidly between the Asgard transport monitor and the scene outside. They had reached Riverside Park and were closing in on her beacon.

“Where is she, Daniel?”

The monitor wasn't that detailed, but he knew New York. “West 86th Street, right on the Park.”

At this height, coming in from the northwest, the buildings in this section of the city appeared largely intact, with most of Central Park and nearby structures damaged but standing. Nevertheless the scene was chaotic. Vehicles were piled up on every corner, some under chunks of masonry and shattered glass. Sections of the roads had been torn up, street lamps and traffic lights smashed into the ground, and two fire hydrants were spewing out massive gouts of water.

Bodies were scattered everywhere. The few people showing any signs of life were either injured or immobilized by sheer terror. Daniel fought back the instinct to yell at Jack to stop and help survivors. Then he noticed two Al'Kesh were creeping across the tops of buildings between Park and 5th Avenue, randomly shooting energy weapons at anything and anyone.

“Two blocks,” Daniel reported as the jumper eased along 86th low enough for him to see terrified faces peering at them through shattered windows. He turned his attention to the monitor, consciously trying not to grip the armrests of his seat. An made some infinitesimal adjustment to the settings and the signal jumped slightly. Damn. It looked as if Sam was moving.

“Which building?” Jack asked.

Learning forward, Daniel pointed. “On your right. Close to the tenth floor window. She's moving up, looks like she might be headed to the roof.” He hoped that was a good sign, that she'd maybe seen them.

A shadow passed overhead. He dismissed it as one of the rolling plumes of oily smoke enveloping the city until something hit the jumper and knocked it sideways. Daniel looked up and out—and saw the Al'Kesh fire on them a second time. The impact slammed them into the stone wall of the building.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Sounds of disbelief followed Sam's declaration, and Cancer Man openly scoffed. “Lady, who do you take us for?” Commander Bennett's eyes narrowed and he stared at her. “I met an aviation engineer at the Naval Air Experimental Station in Philadelphia, Lieutenant Heinlein. He used to talk about stuff like that.”

If Robert Heinlein had been at Philadelphia... Taking a guess, she said, “Nikola Tesla also worked there.” The recognition in the commander's eyes was enough for her to add, “Tesla didn't quite get it right, which is why he had problems with the USS Eldridge, but that ring, the Stargate sitting inside the Met—” she pointed through the window across Central Park—”uses the same principle to travel through space and time.”

Stating it used the same principles that Tesla had been experimenting with was a considerable stretch of the truth, but this wasn't the time or place to be discussing the finer nuances of wormhole physics. “This invasion isn't from Mars, but it is from another planet. It's a dual attack, via the 'gate and also from space. We fought these aliens for nine years,” she continued. “And we won, so they can be defeated, but you have to do exactly as I tell you.”

“You're not buying into this science fiction crap,” Cancer Man started, but the commander's steely gaze shut him up.

“I've lost the connection,” Bennett told Sam, hanging up   the telephone. He grabbed his cap from the desk and made for the door. “I want you to come with me. There's a radio transmitter on the tenth floor and we need to get this information to General Royall.”

Behind her, Cancer Man was still spluttering when another series of explosions erupted in the area of LaGuardia Airport. Then the power went out.

“What about power to the radio?” Sam called after Bennett, surprised that the power had lasted as long as it had and aware that half a dozen people were right behind her.

The Naval officer cursed roundly and stopped at the entrance to the stairwell.

“I can rig up a couple of car or truck batteries,” Sam offered.

The young staff sergeant beside her was quick off the mark. “Sir, me and Abrahms can pull them from the staff cars.”

“Don't touch mine, ya hear?” Cancer Man growled around a newly lit cigarette.

“What, planning on making a run for it?” Commander Bennett turned to the sergeant. “Okay, Walker, take Harrison and Bakersfield with you and double time it.”

“Yes, sir!”

Four of them, including young Sergeant Walker, vanished down the stairwell, with Cancer Man looking on nervously.

“Where's Agent Peterson?” Bennett asked him.

Sam assumed he was referring to Brylcreem because a startled expression appeared in Cancer Man's face, and, throwing the cigarette aside, he took off down the stairwell as another, distant explosion rumbled through the building.

The commander gave a sound of disgust and then took the stairs up two at a time. Sam ignored the pounding in her head and followed him up three flights to emerge in a corridor lined with offices. The decor was considerably less shabby, but the level of undisguised panic was, if anything, heightened in the handful of people they encountered during their run to the radio room.

They entered a wide foyer and Sam glanced out the window when Bennett pulled up short and swore. Hovering near the corner of the building was the massive form of an Al'kesh, it's Jaffa pilot clearly visible. The Al'kesh turned slightly, as if targeting something, and that's when Sam glanced down along the street and saw the jumper.

Without thinking, she grabbed Bennett by the arm and yelled at him, “Get back!” but before the words were fully out of her mouth, a burst from one of the Al'kesh's cannons erupted. The impact on the force field around the jumper sent a blue electrical discharge through the air, and the jumper was knocked sideways into a nearby building. The stench of ozone hit them through the shattered windows just as a second and then third blast from the Al'Kesh knocked the jumper away from the building opposite—directly toward them.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Teal'c leaped from the passenger seat, grabbed his P-90 and ran to the rear of the jumper. Upon opening the hatch, he saw through the dust that they had come to rest several feet inside the structure. Bringing his weapon to bear, he moved swiftly to the edge of the gaping hole in the side of the building, and aimed in the direction where the Al'kesh had been moments before. He knew exactly where to fire so that he might bring the Goa'uld ship down.

While in the service of Apophis, Teal'c had piloted many Al'kesh on similar such missions. The nature of the armaments or methods of transport employed by the inhabitants of whatever planet they were invading mattered little to a Goa'uld, except when such technology posed a hindrance to them. It came as no surprise to Teal'c that the pilot of the Al'kesh appeared not to have recognized that the jumper was not from this world. And, as the jumper had not returned fire, it was deserving of no further attention once it had been dealt with.

The pilot had instead set his sights on an alternative target, a large black car that was pulling out from beneath the building in which the jumper had come to a rest. The driver of the vehicle was depressing the horn in a futile attempt to clear a path through the many abandoned and wrecked vehicles along the road. It was both a foolish and fatal error, for the Al'kesh fired upon it, tearing it to pieces.

Despite the actions of the Al'kesh pilot, the strategy that Teal'c had witnessed during the jumpers' approach to the city bore considerably more finesse than usually employed by the Goa'uld. It seemed most likely that Colonel Mitchell had indeed been captured by the Goa'uld after stepping through the Stargate in Egypt and had provided the information necessary for whichever Goa'uld was leading this attack. Although they had not voiced their thoughts on the matter, O'Neill and Jackson clearly believed the same.

“Hey, Teal'c, good to see you guys.”

Colonel Carter's voice drew his attention to the interior of the building in which the jumper had been thrown. Training his weapon on the Naval officer accompanying her, he replied, “Colonel Carter, I am pleased that you are well.” The bruises and smears of blood on her face he dismissed as a minor injury, for she moved with a familiar fluid motion that told him she was otherwise unharmed.

“No Asgard transport?” She stepped closer, and regarded the placement of the jumper with some interest.

“Jack thought he'd try lateral parking for a change,” Daniel Jackson said, emerging.

“Beats having to climb all those stairs,” O'Neill remarked as he, too, stepped rather more stiffly from the jumper.

An item of furniture slipped from the ragged hole in the wall and plummeted to the ground beneath, while a gust of wind whipped the many papers scattered across the floor into the air, and sent them fluttering after it.

“Making new friends, Carter?” O'Neill asked, eyeing her companion warily as he stepped over a window frame forced inside by the jumper's arrival.

Colonel Carter turned to the officer, whose face was registering extreme disbelief. “Sir, this is Commander Bennett.”

“The...radio. We have to get to the radio.” Commander Bennett's eyes took in O'Neill's stars and, evidently confused, he came to attention. “General.”

“Teal'c,” O'Neill said, turning to him. “Is that Al'kesh likely to come snooping around the place?”

“I do not believe so, O'Neill. Its purpose is to instill fear in any likely to resist, while the Jaffa secure the area at ground level.” Taking in the solid framework of the structure, he added, “This building could provide adequate cover until we acquire the necessary naquadah.”

“Naquadah?” Colonel Carter asked.

“I'll explain as we go. Who else is on this level?”

“I  think it's pretty much deserted except for the radio room.”

O'Neill nodded. “Teal'c, you and Daniel check it out. I'm gonna move the jumper further inside, just in case.”

“What about cloaking it?” Daniel Jackson suggested.

“We need it to get out of here and we can camouflage it the old fashioned way. I'd sooner keep the force field enabled.”

Several explosions erupted nearby. Flinching instinctively, Daniel Jackson nodded and replied, “Good point.”

O'Neill then turned to Carter and studied her face for a moment. “NID do that to you?”

“It looks worse than it is, sir.”

“I'm sorry,” Commander Bennett said in repentant tones. “I should have... I should thrown that punch at Peterson myself.”

Colonel Carter was dismissive. “If that was the best they can come up with, it's no surprise that the Cold War went on for as long as it did.”

“Isn't gonna be a Cold War to worry about,” O'Neill said, tossing her a P-90. Colonel Carter caught and checked it in one fluid movement as O'Neill shouldered his own weapon. “If we don't get our hands on some naquadah.”

Teal'c lead the way forward. Moving along the corridor, they discovered all the rooms, including the radio room, had been abandoned. He took in the view of Central Park with a frown. The Jaffa ground forces were being positioned in a disturbingly familiar pattern. By morning, the entire area would be a fully serviced Jaffa encampment.

“God, there must be thousands of them.” Daniel Jackson came to stand beside him. “Ra—or whoever is running this—is not messing around.”

“The enslavement of the Tau'ri is ambitious,” Teal'c agreed, his fists clenched in a wave of impotent anger. Unless this timeline could be restored, the future freedom of all Jaffa was imperiled.  If they were forced to remain in 1947, he would do everything in his power to rectify that situation. “Once a foothold has been established around the Stargate, the invading force will give the inhabitants the option of succumbing before the entire planet is laid to waste.”

“This soon after World War II, few nations have the capacity to put up much of a fight,” Daniel Jackson observed. “Russia, maybe, but if the Ha'taks start firing from space...” His voiced trailed off and he shook his head. “The timing for this invasion couldn't have been worse...or more of a coincidence.”

“What do you mean, Daniel Jackson?”

“Nothing, really. Just a thought. Getting through the 'gate isn't going to be easy. The Antarctic option may be the better one.”

“Unless it has also been secured.”

“Damn!” Daniel Jackson shook his head, his expression grim. “Cam would have known about the second 'gate, too.”

“I, too, fear that Colonel Mitchell is the one providing the Jaffa with information.” Teal'c was silent for a moment. “He would not have easily succumbed.”

“But you know better than most that he would have. Eventually.”

Teal'c inclined his head, appreciating the bitter truth in his friend's words. And that he felt responsible. “With sufficient naquadah the jumper will be concealed and shielded.”

Sighing heavily, Daniel Jackson said, “That's supposing we can actually get hold of the naquadah and An can get all systems operational.”

“Staff weapons contain naquadah.” Teal'c turned from the window and headed out of the office, back along the corridor to the jumper. “And I am confident in Colonel Carter's abilities. With the help of the Asgard, she will prevail.”

Falling in to step beside him, Daniel Jackson forced a smile. “You never lose your optimism, do you, Teal'c?”

“It is not optimism, Daniel Jackson, merely the refusal to fail.”

CHAPTER FORTY

It was one of the many, many attributes of military life to which Daniel had never entirely become accustomed: hurry up and wait. But until Sam and An could ascertain exactly how much naquadah they needed, there was no point drawing attention to themselves by going outside to ambush a troop of Jaffa in order to liberate their staff weapons. Besides, a daytime approach was out of the question. Even Jack thought the odds of four against forty thousand a little steep. Consequently, he'd decided on a single reconnaissance mission at 0200 to check out the approach path to the 'gate, with the plan to grab the necessary naquadah on the way back to the jumper.

Earlier, along with Teal'c, Jack and Commander Gary Bennett, Daniel had explored the building to check for anyone left inside. Although it hadn't surprised him, it had shocked Bennett to find the place deserted. Presumably the jumper's sideways slam into the top floor of the building had precipitated the mass evacuation. Every floor was littered with smashed glass and upturned furniture. Here and there, a dust-covered limb or torso was visible beneath broken masonry. They'd found no one alive.

Bennett's distress had been compounded when, in the under-ground parking lot, which had somehow remained relatively unscathed, he'd discovered three of his men lying dead on the ground, shot at close range. A fifth body nearby had, according to Bennett, been one of the agents who had interrogated Sam. Just outside, in the torn up street littered with the rubble of nearby buildings, they'd found the twisted hulk of a car that Bennett identified as belonging to the second agent. Perhaps the universe did have a perverse sense of justice. Apparently, in his single-minded haste to get away, the NID agent had unwittingly diverted the Al'kesh's attention from the jumper to himself, with gruesome results. Bennett had only been able to identify what remained of the body from a distinctive scar.

They hadn't ventured further outside because it had still been light, or at least, as light as it could get with a sky darkened by countless fires now ravaging New York. Daniel had had to keep reminding himself that the broken gray post-Apocalyptic landscape would be restored once they'd gone back to 1908 and recovered Cam and Vala.

Bennett, of course, had not been able to take solace in that thought. The commander's stoicism, honed and refined by the nightmare of WWII, had, like Daniel's slipped on several occasions during their search. This wasn't some foreign country; it was New York.

Sam had already told Bennett they were from the future, and the nature of the invasion. Daniel hadn't been sure if Bennett was entirely convinced of their story, until the young naval officer stared outside at the ceaseless patrolling of the Al'kesh and Ha'taks. Squaring his shoulders, Bennett had taken a deep breath, turned to Jack and asked what his orders were.

Daniel glanced at his watch. The fluorescent hands told him they had two hours to go. The NID had, fortunately, employed enough standard batteries in various devices for Sam to rig up power to her laptop. The deserted offices were well provisioned and included quite luxurious living quarters. By 2100 hours they'd all managed to get in a solid eight hours sleep, a couple of decent meals and several quarts of NID coffee.

Jack's ribs seemed to be giving him less trouble now and the bruising, which featured a remarkable array of colors, appeared to be fading. The injuries that Sam had received from Agents she'd named Brylcreem and Cancer Man were minor. And so far, Daniel was relieved to discover, he'd managed to stave off any infection in his leg.

So why did he get the feeling that they were screwed?

A crunch of glass underfoot announced the arrival of someone. “Hey.”

He turned. “Hi, Sam. How's it going?”

Joining him at the window overlooking Central Park, she said,“Well, without a naquadah generator we're going to need a lot of raw naquadah to rig up a primitive power supply module.”

“Was that An's description?”

Despite the darkness, he saw her smile. “Actually, he pulled enough components from his escape pod for us to rig up some-thing pretty sophisticated, but I don't think An's accustomed to improvising.”

“He seemed pretty traumatized by the whole thing with Loki.”

“And finding out about the General's Ancient gene. Came as something of a shock to learn we're descended from the Ancients and had found Atlantis. He also keeps asking about you.”

“Me?”

“He's intrigued by the idea that someone could Ascend—twice—and then chose to come back as a mortal. I think deep down, the Asgard aspire to Ascension. Apparently in the early days, An's work was considered something of an anachronism, a step backward in their evolutionary progress. It's only been the last few hundred years that he's received recognition.”

“If we ever do get back and find Merlin's weapon, the whole immortal Ascended thing is going to have to be rethought.”

Sam was silent for a moment, and then said, “We will get them back, Daniel.”

Daniel wished people would stop tying to comfort him about leaving Vala and Cam behind. “Y'know, I've been thinking about this whole time travel thing, Sam. I'm starting to agree with you. Not that I wanted to die inside that cave or anything, but this mess,” he said, pointing in the general direction of Central Park, “really does demonstrate how incredibly risky it is to go stumbling around blindly through time.”

“It's funny you should say that.” Sam leaned against the buckled window frame and looked out below to the Jaffa camp-fires. “Because I was the one who sent us here. Something happened to change my mind.”

'The Ori?”

“I don't know. I suppose when we do get back, I'll have a chance to ask myself.”

“If we get back.”

Sam put her hand on his shoulder, a wordless gesture that said much more. And then, as if she understood he'd appreciate a change of subject, she added, “I had another long talk with Commander Bennett. About his past, not our future,” she clarified.

“Doesn't seem like the type the NID would enlist.”

“Strictly speaking it's not yet the NID. But from what I can understand, it started out life as a joint military extension of Naval Intelligence. Several aspects of the Navy and Army Air Force had already been combined to form what would become the Air Force a couple of months from now. The NID was just another post war reconfiguration of the intelligence community. Because it operated as a military oversight organization, it was, naturally, composed in part of military personnel.”

“A lot of things can happen in fifty years, I guess.”

“The Truman Doctrine came into effect in March. This country is—was—headed into the paranoia of the Cold War.”

“Instead they got this.” Daniel looked out the shattered windowpane again.

Earlier that evening they had tried tuning into several radio stations. While most were off the air, and international broadcasts were limited to relays from a few ham operators, the news reported that 'invaders from Mars' had leveled DC and New York. Still reeling from the war, the British were assessing the situation while Moscow remained surprisingly quiet.

Most of the radio reports had described the invasion as a true life 'war of the worlds'. Harking back to Orson Welles's radio play ten years earlier, some lower echelon bureaucrats thought the entire thing an elaborate joke, while others—those who'd seen with their own eyes the 'death ray' in action—wondered if H.G. Wells's 1898 science fiction novel had in some way been prophetic.

Jack had looked decidedly thoughtful at that declaration, but had gone back to cleaning their P-90s without comment.

“C'mon,” Sam said, turning to leave. “Teal'c's brewing up another batch of coffee.”

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

“Sir,” Carter whispered. “That's Mitchell!”

“What?”

The Jaffa that Carter was pointing at, stood at the entrance of a typically overdone Goa'uld circus tent set up at the edge of the turtle pond, complete with a troupe of Jackal-headed clowns hanging out nearby. Although the night vision goggles he was wearing distorted the Jaffa's features somewhat, Jack knew—with a sick feeling in his gut—that Carter was right. He was maybe fifteen years older, but there was no question. It was Cameron Mitchell.

“That's a gold tattoo on his forehead,” Carter added. “Can't make out the design from this angle.” She lifted her own goggles and wiped the sweat and dirt from her face before replacing them. “I'd assumed he'd been taken over by a Goa'uld.”

“We all did,” Daniel said. “Somehow that would have been easier to stomach.”

“Colonel Mitchell trained as a Jaffa warrior under the Sodan.” Teal'c had crawled up beside them between the fallen trees, and was taking in the field of burned-out cars, rubble and bodies that had once been 84th Street. “Once transformed into a Jaffa, he would have quickly risen through the ranks to become a First Prime.”

Jack found that hard to swallow. Not that Mitchell didn't have the fighting skills or fortitude to survive the training as a Jaffa. But to become a First Prime? That required a degree of ruthlessness that seemed out of character for the Cameron Mitchell Jack remembered.

Another snippet from the collection of memories that Jack was looking forward to losing when Alzheimer's finally set in, suddenly filled his mind. Hathor pulling him into that obscene embrace, drugging him into passive complicity while she'd transformed him into a Jaffa.

Catching Teal'c's concerned expression, Jack shook his head to shove the memory away. Is that what had happened to Cam? Had he been seduced by the Goa'uld? Or had Mitchell turned on his own kind willingly? It wasn't so hard to imagine what it must have been like to wake up and find yourself stranded in the wrong time. How long it had taken before Cam Mitchell had abandoned hope of being recovered? How many years had passed before hope transformed into hatred?

Jack couldn't see it, somehow. It seemed much more likely that the man who had shown such single-minded purpose in learning to walk again, had turned that same single-minded-ness to getting home. Mitchell might have allowed himself to be enslaved because he thought it would position him where he could do some good. Or at least taken the edge off some of Ra's excesses.

Kill millions to save billions. Hadn't Bra'tac said that once?

Which, Jack mused, would also explain why this invasion Just happened to start when SG-1 was in town.

Still, twenty-five years was a long time, assuming the Colonel had been captured soon after he and Vala had stepped through the 'gate at Giza, not to mention the previous fourteen, almost fifteen years he'd spent on Earth prior to that, waiting vainly for SG-1 to return.

No, Jack thought. Mitchell must have reason to believe we 'd be here and he's convinced whichever Goa'uld he's working for that 1947 is the best time to invade Earth. It was the only explanation that fit what had been, thus far, a superbly well-planned attack.

Jack chewed on that for several seconds. The notion didn't make him feel any better because if Cam Mitchell was standing here in 1947 a fully-fledged Jaffa—for whatever reason—it meant SG-1 had never made it back to 1908 to recover them.

Which also begged another question. What had happened to Vala?

It was no surprise that Carter's thoughts had been running along the same lines, because she turned to him and said, “We know we've gone back in time before, and managed to correct the timeline, sir, so I wouldn't take Cam's presence here as a Jaffa as proof that we failed to retrieve them from 1908.”

Except—and here it was again, the same argument—Jack distinctly recalled not going back in time and taking out Ra.

The smell of death and burned rubble drifted across the park. Suddenly, the sweat trickling down Jack's back and chest, the gritty sensation of not having showered or shaved for days—in any timeline—and the forest full of woodpeckers hammering away it his head, knees and most of all his chest, drove home the singular fact that he really was getting too old for this.

And yet, Carter would be flitting back and forth through time when she was another ten, even fifteen years older than he was now.

Time travel via the Stargate, huh. Go figure.

While Jack was pondering that dilemma, the Jaffa that used to be Mitchell continued to issue orders. He seemed unaware he was being watched, more concerned with deploying his Jaffa forces with the sure hand of a tactician trained by the US Air Force. Clouds scudded across the night sky, briefly blocking the moon. The air had that tense electric feel ahead of a summer thunderstorm. Mitchell seemed to feel it, too, or perhaps he sensed something else, because he turned in their direction.

“That's not Ra's symbol on his forehead,” Daniel whispered.

Beside him, Jack felt Carter tense. “Are you sure?” She turned to look.

“Daniel Jackson is correct, Colonel Carter,” Teal'c said, lowering his night vision binoculars. “Mitchell is not Ra's First Prime. He wears the symbol of Qetcsh, daughter to Ra.”

“Qetesh?” Carter repeated. “As in, Vala used to be...”

“The one and the same,” Daniel confirmed.

“Oh, well, that's just dandy,” Jack muttered. Could this world get any more screwed up?

Several Jaffa strode out of the tent. Bronzed and bare-chested, their only garment was a short pleated skirt of gold embroidered cream, or maybe white cloth. Their onyx headgear was also considerably less bulky, more organic than the regular Jaffa helmets. Jack watched them with interest. He'd not seen helmets so detailed and life-like before.

Then one of the jackal-headed Jaffa spoke to Mitchell, his canine tooth-filled jaw moving in a distinctly human fashion.

“Oh, my God!” Carter gasped before Jack could. “Did you see that?”

“That's not a helmet!” Daniel's jaw had dropped so hard that Jack could have sworn he heard it impact the tree stump.

“Ya' think?” He was feeling more than a little stunned himself, although he had to admit that these Jaffa bore a closer resemblance to the critters he'd seen embedded in the Stargate capstone, than the standard model.

Even Teal'c seemed taken back. “It has been many years since I have heard of such creatures.”

“What are they?” Carter asked.

“Chimeras.”

“Which are...?” Jack prompted impatiently

“Centuries ago, Ra commanded Nirrti to create guardians for his daughters,” Teal'c explained. “Their bodies are human in appearance, but they are not.”

“Which means they're not likely to succumb to the wiles of Hathor and Qetesh,” Daniel concluded. “Makes sense, actually.”

Teal'c nodded in agreement. “Ra would not allow his daughters the opportunity to build armies of their own to overthrow him. I suspect these are the last of their kind, for while they are exceedingly long lived they are unable to bear offspring, and Nirrti's attempts to create other chimeras resulted in abominations.”

Personally, Jack would've classed these as abominations as well, but right now his only interest was in getting a look at the approach path to the Stargate. Antarctica was off the menu; Mitchell knew where to find it and wasn't likely to have left it unguarded. Jack just wanted to get the eight staff weapons they needed, and get the hell out of Dodge.

The Jaffa—or whatever it was—that Mitchell was speaking to, slapped his hand across his chest in salute, then took off at a light jog into the night, oblivious to the scattered chunks of wreckage beneath his bare feet. Mitchell took a last, suspicious look around, pulled the flap of the tent aside, and stepped in.

Carter glanced behind them, checking they were still unobserved. Then she turned back and leaned against the tree stump. “Am I the only one wondering what became of Vala?”

“No,” Daniel said.

Teal'c came right out with it. “If Colonel Mitchell is now First Prime to Qetesh, and they stepped through the 'gate together, it is logical to assume Vala is either dead or was retaken as a host.”

Daniel let out a soft moan. Jack glanced across and saw that he'd closed his eyes and was resting his forehead on splinted edges of the oak. It had been years since Shar'e's death, but compounded with his guilt for leaving Mitchell and Vala behind, sometimes the agony of that loss still crept up on him unawares.

“It is also highly likely that Qetesh is indeed the Goa'uld entrusted by Ra to lead this invasion, for until Ra's death, she was among his most favored,” Teal'c added, his eyes narrowed as he examined the nearby woods.

“This is fascinating,” Jack said, injecting the necessary harshness into his tone. He might not understand the physics of the damn thing, but he knew this timeline was monumentally screwed, and the only way they were going to fix it, was by getting out of here. Agonizing over the fate of lost comrades wasn't very helpful. Especially since they could make sure this screw-up never even happened simply by getting back to where they belonged. “We only came here to eyeball the 'gate, kids, and grab a few staff weapons, not take on Ra. Or his minions.  Even if they're old friends.”

Daniel's head snapped up. “We can't just leave Cam and Vala behind!”

Carter turned to look back over the Jaffa encampment. Her expression said she understood what Jack was getting at. “If we can get back to 1908 none of this will ever happen.”

Daniel seemed unconvinced. “Didn't you say this timeline might continue to exists in a parallel dimension?”

When Carter didn't immediately reply, Jack turned to her. “It's a possibility,” she conceded.

Teal'c, as usual, cut right to the heart of the matter. “Ours is the only timeline that matters.”

“Teal'c's right, sir. We have to focus on restoring our timeline.”

“And if we can't?” Daniel said.

Jack sensed someone moving behind them and swung around, bringing his weapon to bear and firing. “Then we're screwed anyway!”

A blast from a staff weapon hit Carter in the head as she also turned, slamming her backward.

“Jaffa, Kree!”

A second blast beside Jack sent splinters into his face. Teal'c and Daniel had abandoned their zats and were firing their P-90s at what had to be forty or fifty Jaffa converging on them from all over.

A peripheral view of Carter told Jack that she may not have been killed outright, but he didn't kid himself for a moment that any of them were getting out of this alive. The impact of the staff blast had impaled her on one of the splintered branches, and blood was gushing out of her chest and mouth.

The shock of that realization did nothing to deter him. So this is how it ends.

He continued shooting the Jaffa with the single minded ruthlessness of a man who knows he's dead but has every intention of making life as nasty and as short as possible for his executioners. In that split second of awareness before the inevitable blast took him out, Jack heard Mitchell's voice commanding the Jaffa to—

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Sarcophagus induced migraine. Or maybe it was the residual combination of Scopolamine and whatever else Brylcreem and Cancer Man had slipped her.

Sam wanted to throw up, but that was a bad idea because she was lying on her back. Inhaling a predigested MRE was a really, really, stupid way to die. “Have to roll over,” she mumbled, grappling blindly for something she could pull on because she felt as if she was pinned to the ground. Her hands came in contact with a large and cool and slightly textured object—which toppled out of her reach and smashed onto hard floor.

“Whoa! Sam, hang on a sec. Daniel'll have a fit if he finds you've been smashing up the museum's collection of Ming Dynasty vases.” She stared blankly at a shadowy figure standing over her.

“Not that some busted pots really matters in the scheme of things,” he added in a conversational tone, “but let's keep the noise down a bit, okay?”

Strong hands lifted her onto her knees. The pain was too blinding and her eyes too gluey to see who it was helping her, but her ears were working just fine.

“Cam,” she croaked between heaves.

“Long time no see, Sam.”

“We thought...”

“Oh, yeah... I can imagine what you thought.” He knelt beside her, holding her upright. She opened and closed her eyes several times, vaguely repulsed by the sight of her stomach contents and confused by the pattern beneath. Carpet. She was throwing up on a Persian rug. Probably priceless. Throwing up on Brylcreem had been much more enjoyable.

“Where... Where are we?”

“The Met. I was hoping I'd catch up with you guys about now, although I admit to not being quite sure what year it was on Earth until we actually made it through the 'gate.”

With her stomach empty, the migraine fell away like a receding wave that had dumped her headfirst into the sand. “What...”

“Here, drink this.”

Staggering to her feet with Cam's help, she accepted a glass of water, rinsed her mouth and spat into a nearby waste bin, then downed the rest before she could fully appreciate the absurdity. Cam was a First Prime dressed in all the trappings of an Egyptian god, politely holding a hand towel out to her. She took the cloth and scrubbed her face. It came away clean, but that sure as hell wasn't how she felt.

“I...remember being hit in the head. God, that hurt!”

“Yeah, well, the General made short work of the Jaffa who killed you.”

That gave her pause. She met his gaze, and tried hard not to stare at the gold tattoo on his forehead. “A sarcophagus!”

“Sorry about that, Sam, but I prefer you alive.”

“Why? Invasion not going so well?”

He frowned, a little annoyed, it seemed, that she wasn't taking him at his word.

“I need you, Sam,” he explained, leaning against a polished rosewood table. He crossed one booted, gold-clad leg over the other. There were no pockets for his hands to vanish into, but the morning light streaming in through the window illuminated his face. It was Cam all right, a few additional facial lines, gold skullcap, Jaffa armor and a deep suntan notwithstanding. “This timeline isn't gonna get fixed without you, and as messy as things were, I, for one, preferred the original.”

He seemed genuine, but there was no telling what his years as a Jaffa had done to him. And he surely hadn't reached the position of First Prime by being considerate or softhearted. To give herself time to think, Sam looked around. They were in some sort of office. The rich mahogany shelves were stuffed with books and artifacts from a dozen cultures, and the desk was piled high with papers held in place by the sort of keepsakes that had permeated late Victorian parlors. There was even a fine collection of dust motes sparkling in the light. Just the sort of place in which Daniel would have felt right at home. “Where's everyone else?”

“Couple of rooms away. I had to yank you out of the sarcophagus before Qetesh's slaves came back. They would have kicked up a hell of a fuss because Madame has a thing about anyone else using it. This was the closest room I could stash you.”  He eyed her head but made no move to come closer. “I think you'll be okay. You were inside the thing long enough to repair the damage.”

Taking a few deep breaths she nodded. The headache was already a memory and the piercing agony in her back and chest... She glanced down to see a bloodied hole in her vest, but a quick check assured her she was now perfectly okay. “I didn't think you could open a sarcophagus while it was still in operation.”

“You can't. I busted it, but it looks okay, which is all that matters for the moment.” Cam pushed himself off the desk and went to the door. “Wait here a sec and I'll see what I can do about getting you a disguise.”

Despite the fact that he had obviously just saved her life, Sam wasn't entirely certain Cam could be trusted. That must have been reflected on her face, because he offered her a tired smile. “It's okay, Sam. We've been planning for this day a long time.”

He was gone just long enough for Sam to check the room for potential weapons. Palming a jade paperknife when the door opened again, she was surprised to see he'd brought with him a set of Jaffa armor—the style signified it had come from one of Ra's warriors—and a staff weapon. Resting the weapon against a bookcase, he handed her the outfit. “Might be a little big across the shoulders, but you're tall enough to carry it off.”

A dozen questions came to mind, but she abandoned the paper knife, focused on the mechanics of dressing, and settled for, “Are Teal'c, Daniel and the General all right?”

“A little cranky, I'm guessing. Once I realized it was you guys creeping up on us, I ordered the Jaffa to use zats but a couple of them got a little overenthusiastic. We don't have a lot of time,” he added, lifting the helmet onto her head and fastening it to the neck plate. It smelled of sweat and something rancid, but Sam wasn't about to complain. “Qetesh is overseeing the destruction of Washington. Ra's taken a couple of death gliders to Russia to pick up the DUD.”

“Ra is here on Earth?”

“Off and on. His Ha'tak is in orbit still, but he wants two-way use of the 'gate. In the meantime, we need to get moving. Once word reaches either Ra or Qetesh that Apophis's First Prime is in town, they're gonna be wanting some answers about how Teal'c got here.”

Teal'c had not been First Prime to Apophis for years, but the gold tattoo on his forehead and their use of zat guns would take a bit of explaining.

“C'mon.” He grabbed the staff weapon and handed it to her. “And keep this shut.” Cam reached up to her neck and pressed something. The faceplate closed around her face with a greasy mechanical sound.

She'd never worn an enclosed Jaffa helmet before, and although they were incredibly restrictive, the eyepieces offered her an enhanced vision.

Smiling his approval, Cam said, “Nice touch of realism there, Sam. You've got enough naquadah in your blood to activate the lenses.”

Once outside the office, Sam recognized their location as the second floor of the Met. There wasn't as much damage as she'd expected, given that the front entrance had been blasted apart to allow the exit of Stargate-capable death gliders. Cam led her along a darkened corridor until they reached a foyer backed by heavy blue drapes and a helmeted Jaffa guard loyal to Ra.

“I have come to interrogate Apophis's spy,” Cam said imperiously.

The Jaffa turned and unbolted the door. Sam caught sight of a second and third Jaffa, both loyal to Qetesh, standing just inside the entrance. Cam pulled out a zat and shot the three of them in quick succession. Two fell into the room, while Cam grabbed the outside guard before he could hit the ground in what was bound to have been an attention-grabbing clank of metal on the marble tiled floor. Sam collected the guard's staff weapon, followed Cam inside, and, with a quick check to make certain they hadn't been observed, closed the door behind them.

Teal'c and Daniel had already dragged the fallen Jaffa out of the way, while Jack helped Cam lower the first.

“We're on the clock,” Cam said, and then shot all three Jaffa a second time with the zat, killing them. “More merciful that way, believe me. Ra does not take kindly to failure.”

In the tense silence that followed, Sam could feel her teammates weighing up their options.

“Oh,” she said, and opened her helmet.

They'd all been down this path too often together to express any kind of sentiment, but the atmosphere in the room abruptly shifted.

“Been waiting a very long time to see you guys.” Cam kneeled and began stripping the armor from one of the dead Jaffa.

Daniel appeared the most upset. “But...we're going back for you!”

“You'd better,” he said. “Someone died in that fire we started at the university and it changed history. Big time.”

“We kinda noticed that,” General O'Neill remarked. “You know, what with you invading Earth, an' all.”

Cam didn't smile. “Vala and I figured that since you didn't come back for us, the fire must have created a few problems for you guys.” He gestured outside. “Gimme a hand with this armor. We're going to walk out of here like we own the place Which, in fact, we do.”

“What happened?” O'Neill asked, unlatching a helmet on the second Jaffa.

“Back in 1908? Long story.”

“You get to see the Cubs beat Detroit?”

“They lost.”

The General froze, and then stared at Cam with disbelieving eyes. “No, they didn't.”

Cam glanced up at Sam while he continued to work on removing the Jaffa's body armor. “I know what you said about not interfering with the timeline, Sam, and you were right, but things had started to go haywire before you guys had even left. The Cubs losing the World Series confirmed that.”

“That's just... not right,” O'Neill said, tugging off a glove. “Yeah, well, that's when I figured something had gone wrong and we decided it was up to us to get back in time and fix things. Like I said, though, I don't think the baseball game mattered as much as me thinking it did.”

“Your actions thereafter changed things.” Sam said, nodding in understanding. “That initiated a domino effect and events cascaded.”

“Exactly.” When Cam explained what had happened after the fire, and why, Sam wasn't really surprised. She'd always had a bad feeling about that fire. “You tracked down the hand DHD to Tutankhamen's tomb?”

“Only half of it. Lovecraft's grandfather acquired the guts of the thing in Cairo in 1890 after finding some tunnels beneath the pyramids. Turned out he also knew something about a portal to a 'dark realm'.”

“Harry Houdini,” Daniel muttered, pausing in his work. “Oh, my God. Why didn't I think of that before?”

“Houdini,” the General said, wrenching off the Ra guard's chest armor. “Isn't this getting just a tad ridiculous?”

A neckpiece came free in Daniel's hands. “On the contrary, it now all makes complete sense. Two years after Tutankhamen's tomb was found, Lovecraft ghostwrote a fictional story for Harry Houdini, titled, Under the Pyramids. In it, he described a deep shaft and series of tunnels beneath the Giza plateau. The bottom tunnel led to what he described as a portal to another world where jackal headed humans roamed and unspeakable horrors took place. Thing is, those tunnels really exist—except they weren't discovered by Dr. Zahi Hawass until—”

“—1998. Yeah, well, I think we messed that up, some, too,” Cam said, expertly removing the last of the armor. “Vala made Howard promise to keep his mouth shut. Instead of writing fiction, he sat his high school exams, got a scholarship to Harvard and in 1922 he was nominated for a Nobel Prize in chemistry.”

“Wow.” Sam wasn't really surprised by that snippet, either. Lovecraft had been a genius.

“So...you two got married, huh?” Daniel said, not so deftly changing the subject.

Cam shook his head. “When we began boarding at Howard's place, the easiest way to avoid awkward questions was to pose as a couple.” He glanced at Daniel and grinned momentarily, looking very much like the Cameron Mitchell that Sam knew. “I believe her exact words were, 'this is just pretend, you know, until we're rescued, Mitchell. I'm saving myself for Daniel'.”

“She said that?” Daniel yanked the second boot off the Jaffa he'd been working on.

“Some things never change, Jackson, no matter which timeline you're on.”

Sam had the feeling there was a lot more to it than that, but now was not the time. “And the Stargate?” she prompted.

“The map in Langford's files back at the SGC identified the location. I wasn't entirely certain when we got there, because Giza's kind of a big place, and it was fourteen years since I'd eyeballed that map, but the residual naquadah in Vala's blood acted like a divining rod. Anyway, to cut a long story short, because I couldn't remember what date Langford found the 'gate and we couldn't take the risk of him getting there first, we paid a group of Bedouin to dig it out and arranged to have it reburied it once we went through.”

“Howard Carter claimed you'd both drowned in 'The Well of Ra',” said Daniel, struggling to get into the armor.

Cam's face darkened. “That stupid son of a bitch. Not that it matters any because Ra was banking on the capstone being removed in 1945, but I had hoped Howard was more principled. Probably those damned lawyers,” he muttered as an afterthought.

O'Neill had finished stripping the Jaffa and began to dress himself. “How'd you hook up with Ra?”

“We knew we couldn't come through the Egyptian 'gate—didn't fancy turning into a wall mural—so Vala took us back to a planet where we could grab a 'gate-capable death glider and come back to 1908 via the Antarctic 'gate.”

“So the time travel function of the hand DHD didn't work as planned?” asked Sam, wondering how it was calibrated. She motioned for Daniel to turn around so she could help him finish dressing. Teal'c was already fully kitted out, having had considerably more practice.

“Don't know.” Cam frowned. He glanced at Daniel. “Did you know that Qetesh sometimes allowed Vala's consciousness to get a look in, after she took her as a host?”

Remembering that sense of helplessness when Jolinar had taken full control of her, Sam felt ill. She'd only been under Jolinar's control for a short while, and despite her haughtiness, the Tokra had intended no one harm. What it must have been like to be under the control of a Goa'uld for years was beyond comprehension. For the first time, Sam wondered exactly how long Vala had been a host.

“No, no, I didn't,” Daniel said in a quiet tone. “Guess that would explain a lot.” He wrapped the collar around his neck and Sam fastened it.

“Well, the planet she took us to may or may not have had a death capable glider, but the reason Vala remembered it was there, was because—”

“It was under the control of Qetesh,” Daniel finished.

“You got it. Next thing I know, Qetesh is poking through my brains with a hand device.” Cam's voice was flat and unemotional, but it did little to disguise his anger or the pain he must have suffered at the hands of the Goa'uld.

“What happened to Vala?” The General was helping Daniel with the last of the Jaffa armor, but he paused when Cam didn't reply immediately.

Taking a deep breath, Cam shook his head. “She convinced Qetesh to take her as host. Qetesh saw the value in that, figuring it might give her an edge.”

Shocked, Daniel spun around to stare at Cam. “Vala voluntered?”

“Thereby preventing her younger self from being taken as a host,” Teal'c said.

Cam nodded. “You got it. The one good thing to come out of all this, I suppose.”

“First Prime, huh?” O'Neill remarked.

Cam's face tightened. “Promotion opportunities abound in the service of someone like Qetesh. Occasionally I get to prevent the odd atrocity, instead of just helping it along.”

Sam suspected this brief precis of the last forty years was all they were likely to get.

The General must have assumed the same thing because he asked, “So, what's Qetesh doing hanging out with Ra in 1947?”

Cam didn't hesitate before answering, clearly grateful for the change of subject. “When you knocked off Ra in 1994, Qetesh ended up with the short end of the stick. Between Vala's memories and the knowledge she pulled from my brain, she found out why, and that Langford would begin experimenting with the Stargate in '45. She passed that last bit of information on to Ra, but neglected to mention the stash of nukes which, if I remember correctly, are currently stored at Roswell.”

“It all keeps coming back to Roswell,” Daniel remarked.

“More than you know,” Cam said. “I knew Ra was itching to reclaim Earth, but he's fixated on conquering places via the Stargate, and Earth is kind of a long hop by ship. Langford's resurrection of the Stargate was his signal to attack. Thing is, if Vala and I were going to meet up with you guys anywhere in the future, it had to be at a time when we knew there was a good chance of you being here. Or, if not you, then maybe the Asgard who survived the crash at Roswell could help us. You have no idea what it's taken to get Ra to hold off attacking Earth until now.”

Sam shook her head in wonder. “But how did you know we'd be here? Now?”

“I didn't. Based on what Vala said, I thought you'd be in the Asgard ship. When I came through and saw the Stargate was parked in the Met instead of a military warehouse in DC, I figured Howard—Carter, that is, not Lovecraft—had screwed up, and if you were around, you'd come looking. Got a little worried when I couldn't locate the Asgard ship in orbit.”

“What was with the death gliders over Roswell?” O'Neill said.

Cam smiled humorlessly. “Qetesh, bless her patricidal little heart, spent the time since she caught us, positioning herself so that if Ra is knocked off, we'll all be singing 'long live the queen'. And she's planning on doing that via a nuke ringed aboard his ship.”

In the awkward silence that followed, Daniel and the General finished dressing, and then Cam asked, “What do you guys need to get back to 1908?”

“Loki booby-trapped the time machine and Asgard transport. When we arrived in 1947, he had himself beamed out and left in An's ship.” Sam told him.

“Like a pack of replicators were on his tail,” the General injected.

Cam's expression hardly altered, but when he met her gaze, she could see something, a hint of resentment she might have imagined, perhaps, fall away. Or maybe it was just her own sense of guilt for having left them behind, seeing something that wasn't there.

“We recovered An,” Sam continued. “He's installed a replacement transport in the jumper, but that unit needs a new power supply module in order to safely beam you and Vala aboard in 1908. So, we need power for the transport, preferably additional modules to bring the jumper up to fully operational, and a time machine.” A thought struck her. “Does Ra know about the hand DHD's time travel function?”

“Hasn't got a clue,” Cam assured her. “Qetesh knows, although ever since Ra decided he liked it and took the thing off her, she's not game to mention it for fear that if she shows any interest, he'll wonder why.”

“Where's this hand DHD thing now?” the General asked.

“Ra's normally got it. but no DHD in New York kinda cramps his style, so he's taken a couple of death gliders to Russia to grab the full-sized model. He's given the hand DHD to his First Prime to facilitate two-way travel until he gets back. And yeah, I can get it for you, but the timing is gonna have to be perfect.”

“How so?” The faceplate on the General's helmet snapped shut, and he accepted a staff weapon from Sam.

“You need to get to the jumper, sort out the transport — we'll grab all the naquadah you need on the way—and then wait till Qetesh returns here with the nukes.” Cam gave them a once over and nodded approval. “Once I'm sure I can detonate a nuke, I'll get the hand DHD to you. You should be able to operate it without any trouble; it functions pretty much the same as any other hand device. You just need to go to Antarctica and focus on the date as well as the destination—Antarctica 1908.”

“The Antarctic 'gate isn't protected?” Daniel sounded incredulous.

“Why would it be? It's buried under half a continent of ice and the DHD is dead as a doornail. That's why Ra set up the Egyptian 'gate in the first place. One of the few pieces of information Qetesh never got out of me is that the jumpers come with their own DHDs, and she had absolutely no interest in your ability, Sam, to hotwire the 'gate. You'll need additional naquadah to cut your way through the glacier and get it operational. You can get back home to 2006 the same way, except the destination will be the SGC.”

Cam's mention of the Antarctic 'gate solved a puzzle that had been bugging Sam for years, and offered a brief glimpse into her future self's motivations.

“You're coming with us, right?” Daniel asked.

Opening the door, Cam checked outside before motioning them to follow. “The moment you're gone, I'll ring one bomb aboard Ra's ship and trigger a second one here in New York. That'll take out Qetesh and put a real nasty sting in anyone else's ambitions to invade Earth. It'll also make it easier for you to dial out the Antarctic 'gate—less potential for signal interference.”

“That's not a plan,” the General snapped, falling into step beside Sam. “That's suicide.”

“Begging the General's pardon,” Cam replied without any trace of deference, “but I seem to recall you were prepared to do exactly the same thing on Abydos.”

“This is Earth, Mitchell.”

“The wrong Earth, sir. And if you're successful, none of this will have ever happened.”

“And if we're not?” Daniel followed behind them.

“Then everyone in this city, possibly the entire country, will be put to death anyway, because Ra doesn't take kindly to losing his toys.” Cam led them to the stairs and stopped. “Besides, Vala and I both want this over with.”

Daniel looked at him curiously. “You keep speaking of Vala as if she's still the Vala we know and not the host of Qetesh. How do you know she's even aware of what's going on?”

“Let alone coherent enough to make plans with you to destroy Ra and Qetesh?” the General added with a frown.

Cam shrugged. “She's been pregnant twice. Qetesh took a vacation to protect the babies. We had to be careful, because Qetesh had access to Vala's memories once she'd given birth, but we had a little time together.”

That would have been monstrous for Vala, Sam realized, particularly after what happened with the Ori. “What happened to her children?”

“They're fine.”

“Who's the father?” Daniel sounded as shocked as Sam felt. He would know what such a thing would mean to Vala, even more than she did. “Does it matter?” There was a warning edge to Cam's voice that suggested it would not bode well to enquire further into the matter.

Teal'c, apparently, didn't notice it. “A Goa'uld with Qetesh's tastes would not limit herself to simple pleasures. Or singular ones.”

Cam nodded in agreement and headed down the stairs. “Let's just say she likes a lot of Jaffa when she parties, and leave it at that.” He stopped then, and turned to them. “And for the record, Qetesh is a sick bitch. She keeps Vala's conscious-ness awake, to torment her like some sort of goddamned pet.”

“Oh, God.” A horrible, sick chill crawled over Sam.

“Yeah, well it gets better.”

“What do you mean?” Sam said.

“Qetesh is bored with Vala's body. She's going to...” His voice caught and his eyes took on a momentary edge of desperation. “She's going to take...her daughter, Seshat, as a host when Seshat turns eighteen. So whatever happens to you guys in this timeline, in three days Vala will be dead, Qetesh will have taken...an innocent kid as a host, and I will still be First Prime to a monster we've been planning to destroy for decades. So if you have any doubt at all that I'm not willing to nuke those bastards out of existence...” Cam let the rest of the sentence hang. He turned and continued down the stairs.

Beside her, she felt the General tense, while the multilingual curses coming from Daniel ended only when they reached the bottom of the steps. Their trip through time had only taken a few days. Cam and Vala had been living this nightmare for much, much longer.

“Egyptian Pharaohs commonly took daughters or siblings as wives,” Daniel remarked. Sam glared at him. “I was just thinking out loud. Ra was reputed for that sort of thing.”

“You got that right,” Cam snarled over his shoulder. “Ever since Qetesh announced she's changing hosts, Ra's been thinking of upgrading to a newer model himself. Vala's son, Serapsis, is sixteen now, and because Qetesh's trying to suck up to her old man so he doesn't wake up to the fact that she's planning to kill him, she offered up Serapsis as likely candidate. When Ra gets back from picking up his DHD, he intends taking Serapsis as a host.” Cam stopped between a pair of the fluted pale gray columns, chipped here and there by energy weapons, and turned to them. “Then, if Qetesh hasn't already nuked him, Ra will take her as his bride.” Cam's eyes turned dark with unrestrained rage. “One way or another, I'm putting an end to this before any of that can happen.”

There was only one way to fix this. Diverting her thoughts to what needed to be done, Sam and the others followed Cam along a narrow path between the mounds of rubble that had been the front entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts. She and An had spent the previous day getting everything ready so that once they had the naquadah, they could have the jumper and Asgard transport fully operational within minutes.

She hoped.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

A strangled sound from Carter accompanied Daniel's muttered, “What the hell's going on?”

Lined up either side of the approach to the Stargate, which stood, as Jack had pretty much expected, in the foyer of the Met, were a bunch of Jaffa prodding dozens of captives through the open wormhole. Most of the prisoners were men, a few women but no children. That told Jack they were probable destined for some Goa'uld mining planet.

Strategically, it made sense. Massacring or enslaving and exiling an enemy's fighting force was a standard Goa'uld tac-tic if the planet in question had no naquadah.

Outside, in Central Park, he caught a glimpse of a barricaded area, and someone running. A bolt from a staff weapon took the would-be escapee down before he'd gone fifty feet. For the prisoners about to be shoved through the 'gate, it was a stark reminder that their choice was death by an ugly blast in the back, or drowning in what looked like a weird, bottom-less horizontal well. Regardless, the men about to be pushed through were displaying a hell of lot of reluctance, and that was causing problems for the guards, most of whom wore the jackal-headed armor of Ra.

“Who is in charge of these prisoners?” Mitchell shouted, marching across the rubble-strewn ground.

One of the Jaffa glanced over his shoulder. Mitchell shot him in the pouch with a blast from his staff weapon before the Jaffa had even had a chance to fully turn around.

“How many times have I told you that to maintain control over prisoners you have to brief them on where they're going!” Mitchell bellowed. “Ignorance of their fate prompts them to act rashly, and that chews up the resources—your time and my patience—belonging to your god. You!” Mitchell pointed to another Jaffa. “You're now in charge.”

Without waiting for further instructions, the Jaffa began reorganizing the entire setup, while two of his buddies dragged their former leader's body away.

Mitchell's display of casual ruthlessness might have seemed bizarre to the prisoners—or maybe it was that slight Tennessee twang of his—but Jack understood. The less trouble their captives gave them, the less hindrance to the whole conquering the planet thing they had going. That it happened to be slightly more humane was something that the Jaffa—and more importantly, Ra—probably hadn't considered.

This was Mitchell all right, not a Goa'uld masquerading as a Jaffa, which made Jack a little easier. “That wasn't Ra's First Prime, I'm guessing.”

Leading them toward an Al'kesh parked nearby, Mitchell replied, “Things are better set up on the planet where they're going, I made certain of that. Ra's still an utterly ruthless son of a bitch, but after Qetesh put me in charge of a couple of her mines, he noticed the output quadrupled and the need for Jaffa guards and new slaves dropped to a fraction. Once Ra is out of the picture, many of those planets, including the world I'm sending them to, are pretty much self-sustaining communities.” He nodded in the direction of a group of prisoners sitting inside a baseball diamond.

There was no sign of a fence, but a massive bubble of clear air covered this area of Central Park. Outside what had to be an energy field, palls of thick smoke blanketed out the afternoon sun. Jack had noticed on the way in last night, the towers being set up on the perimeter around the Met. Now he saw that they were manned. “Your idea?”

Mitchell glanced up before leading them inside the ship. “Qetesh's. Between Vala and me she learned a hell of a lot. She's now Ra's number one general. The force field around the Met was turned on while you guys were still sleeping it off. Unfortunately, the nuke will take out the towers first, so it won't help to contain the blast.”

The layout in the Al'kesh was standard, and Mitchell led them in the direction of the cargo bay. They passed several Jaffa and said nothing until they were alone. “Don't be shy about taking everything you need, Sam, and then some. It's not like we're gonna need it.”

He punched in the sequence beside a door panel, which immediately slid open to reveal an armory. While Carter directed Daniel and Teal'c to pack the required naquadah, she said,“Cam, about the nukes. Do you have any idea how you're going to detonate them?”

“You mean there's not a big 'ol red button on them?” Before Carter could respond, Mitchell added, “Seriously? My impression of some of those earlier A-bombs was that they were pretty unstable and relatively easy to blow.”

Carter's expression was doubtful. “That's true for those modeled on Little Boy, but even that used four radar altimeters and a barometric fuse to trigger detonation. Fat Man was an implosion type that used a plutonium trigger, just like the Gadget—the Trinity test.”

“No red button, then?” Jack said, feeling less and less like this was going to go off as Mitchell planned.

“Which is why I was kind of hoping you'd be able to talk me through it, Sam.” Mitchell pulled their radio headsets from within his armor. “If I keep one of these, as long as we're within line of site, I figure we can stay in contact.”

Carter's expression reflected Jack's reluctance to let Mitchell go through with this, but right then he didn't see that they had a whole lot of choice in the matter, at least until both the jumper and transport were fully operational. Wordlessly, he accepted the radios and tucked them inside his armor.

“Is the jumper close by?” Mitchell asked him.

“Other side of the park.”

“I'll walk you through to the outside of the perimeter force field. Once the nukes are here, I'll call you.”

Glancing outside to make certain none of the patrolling Jaffa were in earshot, Jack said, “Shouldn't Qetesh be back by now? Those death gliders were over Roswell first light yesterday.”

“That's it, sir.” Carter and Daniel lifted one box between them while Teal'c held the handle of a second. Jack grabbed the other side and followed Mitchell out, wishing he could use his staff weapon as a walking stick, but hoping there was enough naquadah in the box he was carrying for Carter to enable the jumper's weapons.

“The death gliders secured the base by blowing up the air strip and surrounding roads,” Mitchell explained once they were outside again.

“To prevent the Army from evacuating the bombs,” Carter said.

Jack had worn Jaffa armor in the past, but combined with the weight of the naquadah and the fact that the previous owner of this particular set of armor had been a size or two bigger than Teal'c, was going to make for a damned uncomfortable stroll through the uprooted trees, smashed cars and occasional dead bodies littering up this section of Central Park.

“Qetesh didn't go with them. She took a Ha'tak to oversee the strike on DC and Norfolk. Once she's satisfied they're destroyed or under control, she'll take a team of my best Jaffa to Roswell. She knows I have no idea where the nukes were—are—stored at the base, that's why it was better to leave me here with Ra's First Prime.”

“To avoid the suspicion that she's planning anything,” Daniel said.

“You got it. Ra might have made her his general but if she and I both vanish for a few hours, he'll smell a rat.”

“So, how fast she acquires the nukes will depend on how much resistance she meets.”

“Assuming the nukes are still there,” said Jack.

Mitchell paused and glanced over his shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“I may have given Roswell reason to think they were under attack by aliens a few hours before they were under attack by aliens.”

From behind him, Daniel explained, “Um, we sort of destroyed the control tower and part of the hospital.”

“Resulting in afire that consumed several buildings,” Teal'c added.

“Little trouble with An's escape pod not exactly firing on all four cylinders,” Jack explained.

Mitchell turned and signaled to one of the watchtowers. Something rippled in front of them ten feet away. A bunch of Jaffa began herding a group of about fifty prisoners through the lowered force field and toward the Met. Most of the captives were young, but with an edgy look that told Jack they'd seen combat.

Mitchell must have noticed the direction of his gaze because he said, “There's a second force field set up between us and the 'gate that comes on automatically when this is shut down. There's a bunch of other security measures that I won't bore you with, but any thoughts you may have about sneaking the jumper through and using this 'gate, forget it. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get as many people as I can out of here before I blow the crap out of the place.” He motioned toward another group of prisoners being herded across the park from the direction of the pond. “These guys just might be able to get themselves organized enough to fend off any System Lord trying to take over Ra's territory, if we screw this up and you don't get back to 1908.”

“You would make a fine leader of such a movement,” Teal'c said.

Mitchell hesitated, as if that notion hadn't crossed his mind. “Nice idea, Teal'c, but nobody's gonna appreciate that the tactics I've employed have been designed purely to give humans a fighting chance once Ra and Qetesh are dead. Don't forget, I'm a First Prime to one of the most hated and feared Goa'uld in the galaxy.”

“As was I.”

Reaching the edge of the Park, Jack was relieved to see the building where they'd left the jumper was still reasonably intact. He turned to Cam, knowing there was no way he could convey his respect through the Jaffa helmet for what Mitchell had done against the most horrendous odds. Or what he was about to do. “You should think about what Teal'c said,” was the best he could come up with.

“Thank you....sir.” The salutation sounded a little forced, but Jack appreciated the sentiment. “But I'm confident that you'll set things right in 1908, and none of this will have ever happened.”

A flash of light caught Jack's attention, and he looked up. The lenses in his helmet apparently responded to the naquadah in his blood, or maybe his Ancient gene, because his vision was suddenly enhanced several times. A squadron of bombers—B-29s by the look of them—support by dozens, if not hundreds, of fighters was headed in their direction. Death gliders were already engaging them, but Jack had a bad feeling that enough of the bombers would get through to make a real mess of the place. And while he might normally appreciate their support, this was going to complicate matters because they were standing directly beneath the bombardiers' crosshairs—just outside the force field. The collateral damage was bound to be a bitch.

“Ah, Jack,” Daniel said. “What are the chances that the President would give the order to nuke New York?”

Carter groaned, which was really something Jack would have preferred not to hear right now. “What?” he demanded.

“I explained to General Royall at the Pentagon that the attack was coming through the Stargate. We lost the radio connection before I saw the Al'kesh. Sir,” she turned to face him. Although he couldn't read her expression behind the Jaffa helmet, she was practically bouncing from one foot to the other. “The Pentagon is under the impression that Roswell was attacked, but the invading ships appear virtually indestructible. If I were a military advisor I'd read that to mean—”

“We wanted to grab the nukes prior to the main invasion, because they're the only thing that could damage us.”

“Crap,” Mitchell turned quickly to leave. “A low yield nuke detonated on the outside won't penetrate the force field we've set up, but it'll piss off Ra. He'll hightail it out of here—but not before ordering Qetesh to raze the planet.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

It was probably the running up ten flights of steps dressed in Jaffa armor and carrying a case of naquadah that had done it, but right now, the intense pain ripping through Daniel's leg, and the damp, burgundy patch on his pants, was the least of his concerns.

“Y'know,” he yelled to Jack, “this is one time that I wish the Air Force wasn't so...determined*.” They both ducked when a second bomb impacted the corner of—actually, Daniel no longer had any idea exactly where they were hitting because this entire area of Manhattan Central Park was currently the target of every ace bombardier who'd survived the skies over Europe and the South Pacific.

“At least it wasn't a nuke,” Jack replied, running in a crouch that Daniel knew must be playing havoc on his knees.

As far as they had been able to determine, the force field around the Metropolitan Museum of Arts encompassed an area bordered by West 70th and West 85th Streets, Park Avenue, and about half the baseball diamonds west of Park Drive North, which is where most of the Jaffa encampments had been set up. The bombers were flying in a south to north pattern, and the first payload began hitting somewhere around East 65th. That had extended well into Central Park pond.

The scream of the first bombs had come well before they'd impacted. For the first time, Daniel gained an appreciation of the unique form of terror that particular noise must have inflicted on a generation of people across the world. The long, high pitched whine as the bomb was released, the sense of anticipation and dread as it changed pitch, and a bizarre and selfish, almost guilty sense of relief when the shocking impact tore other buildings and lives to shreds and somehow, this time left you untouched...until the next screaming banshee descended.

Years of countless battles, artillery fire and aerial bombardment should have hardened him to noise and fear and relentless pounding; the sense that any second now could be his last. The insane randomness of who lived and who died, had—in Daniel's mind—been typified most poignantly when Janet Fraiser been lost. He'd also been at the wrong end of friendly fire, seen cities destroyed and civilizations in ruin. But this was New York, not a planet with an alphanumeric designation that Jack couldn't even remember.

And one of the dive-bombers had just taken out the nearby Museum of Natural History, a place that held unique and very personal memories for Daniel.

They ran from the front of the building back inside to where the jumper was still parked, vulnerable now that all of its systems were down while Sam and An installed the naquadah.

“Carter!” Jack called, ducking a section of collapsing ceiling and bolting in through the hatch.

Another piercing whine warned Daniel the next impact was going to be close. He followed Jack into the jumper, jostling for space between Commander Beckett and Teal'c just as a massive explosion tore a nearby building apart, sending masonry and twisted metal girders straight toward them. He slammed his hand on the hatch control mechanism, hoping to keep the sandblasting grit out, but the jumper's systems were still offline.

“Thirty seconds, sir!”

Daniel glanced forward to see Sam slamming shut one of the control panels, Jack easing himself into the pilot's seat and An working on something behind the portside passenger chair. Then a wave of dust hit him.

The sound of coughing drew Daniel's attention to Bennett. He was almost surprised to see that the commander had, as promised, remained behind with An while the rest of them had been getting themselves captured by Cam's Jaffa. It seemed Bennett had no family to speak of, at least not in New York. Despite his initial shock, the Naval officer had also rapidly adjusted to the idea that SG-1 offered the one hope that the world currently had against a Goa'uld invasion.

Daniel wondered if he'd be quite so amenable when he discovered Cam was planning to vaporize New York as part of the solution.

“Now, sir!” Carter shouted above an almost constant background noise of explosions and one eerily drawn out whine of a descending bomb.

Daniel couldn't hear the low level hum of the jumper, but he could feel the ship come to life. The hatch closed, cutting off a deafening explosion that sent the jumper tumbling backward. The inertial dampeners and gravity had already kicked in, along with the force field, because he felt no sense of movement as the juniper abruptly shot clear of the collapsing building.

Life support must have been functioning, too, because the air inside the jumper rapidly cleared.

Outside, it was a different story.

Jack brought the jumper around so they could see the devastation around Central Park. It looked like most of Manhattan was now on fire. Elsewhere, in dozens, maybe hundreds of places around the city, fires were still blazing out of control. Oil storage depots would, Daniel knew, burn for days if not weeks...

Except of course if Cam was successful in detonating a nuke.

The skies above New York were also in flames, with death gliders and US military fighters in unremitting aerial combat. Al'kesh were following bombers as they headed north and then banked west, blasting them out of the sky one by one.

“Can't you do something?” Bennett cried, his voice cracking in desperation.

There'd been no time to explain to him or An what they now planned, but it was crucial they not draw attention to themselves. And that meant doing absolutely nothing to help the bombers and fighters being methodically obliterated.

Daniel saw the tension in Jack's shoulders as he angled the jumper north. “Not yet,” he replied, his words clipped and harsh.

“Don't you have any weapons? Can't you at least... I don't know! Do something!”

“Their sacrifice will not be forgotten, Commander Bennett.” Teal'c's calm tone sliced through the tension on the jumper. “Of that you can be assured. However, now is not the time.”

Bennett spun around to face him, his face screwed up in despair.“Then when?”

The radio in Daniel's ear abruptly switched on. He was about  to reply when he realized that it was Cam. The words were almost incomprehensible, but he recognized the boom box Goa'uld voice in the background as belonging to Vala— or rather, Qetesh.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Qetesh didn't sound happy. The ranting continued for several minutes, during which time the General flew them to a sub-orbital position. Cloaked, with shields activated now that they had full power, they were safer at this altitude than anywhere in the skies over the United States.

“What...what's going on?” Bennett called from the rear of the jumper. “The sky...it's getting darker!”

“We are leaving the planet's atmosphere,” Teal'c replied.

“You mean this is also a...a spaceship?”

“The transmission isn't coming from the ground, sir,” Sam said, instigating a range of checks on the jumper's systems, and switching the transmission to the speakers so they could all hear. “It's coming from an Al'kesh in geosynchronous orbit above. Cam must have ringed aboard Qetesh's ship. He's jammed the transmit button on, I think.”

The voices coming over the loudspeakers offered them a strange, if somewhat disjointed idea, of what must be happening on board Qetesh's ship. By the sound of it, Qetesh's rage resulted from her inability to acquire more than one nuclear bomb from Roswell. Cam's voice came through the radio muffled. “It requires only a single device to destroy Ra's ship.”

“That is not the point,” Qetesh snapped. “I want every one of those weapons. I intend to destroy all System Lords who do not immediately swear their allegiance to me once Ra is dead. And the pathetic miserable creatures who inhabit this planet must not be allowed to retain such weapons. Where have the humans taken the other bombs?”

The sound of footsteps followed before Cam replied, “In my time all fifteen remained at Roswell—”

He let out a muffled grunt of pain before Qetesh screamed, considerably closer this time, “You're hiding something from me--what?”

The level of pain from a Goa'uld hand device was excruciating to the point of debilitating, but of more concern was that while Cam was undoubtedly strong enough to hide the truth from Qetesh, the Goa'uld would know instantly he was hiding something.

Sam figured that Cam must have trained his mind to deal with the hand device using the same skills that she, indeed, all of them, had been trained to employ when subjected to various drugs like Scopolamine. He gave Qetesh a truth, an answer that bought them all sometime. “I...was going to say...could have taken them to White Sands... Maybe runway at Wright Field or Nellis...long enough.”

A grunt and a few deep breaths were the only indication that Cam had been released from the control of the beam. Sam also began breathing again, unaware that she'd stopped. She glanced at O'Neill. His expression acknowledged her sense of relief. No training in the world could harden you against the knowledge that a teammate was being tortured, particularly when they were withholding information to protect you. While that information was also crucial to the mission, it didn't make the situation any easier to stomach.

“The humans received advance warning from the Asgard,” Qetesh spat. “Weak, puny things that they are. They had no right to interfere with this world!”

There was another delay, during which Sam overhead Teal'c explaining the situation to Bennett. She focused on the readouts currently appearing on her laptop. She had had complete confidence the naquadah would function as a viable energy source, and it was a relief to know that they now had all systems operational. “We have full power, sir, including weapons.”

Which mean that they could use the Antarctic 'gate and retrieve the time machine enabled jumper on Maybourne's planet. Except...

Sam couldn't shake off a sense of responsibility toward this timeline. Whether it continued to exist or not once they rectified the past was something she couldn't entirely say for certain. But one thing she did know, her older self had come back in time with the hand DHD device, not via a temporally-enhanced jumper. As with the Asgard food cubes, she read that as a signal.

“Here,” Cam's voice came through stronger this time. I Presumably he was pointing to a map because he added, “This is Nellis, White Sands, and up here is Wright Field. It's possible that once the Army thought they were under attack from the Asgard, they removed the bombs to alternate facilities. Their aircraft couldn't have gone far because it takes a considerable amount of time to load one of those bombs, the only planes capable of carrying that payload are the B-29 Superfortresses, and there's only a handful of runways that can accommodate a Superfortress with a nuke aboard. Plus the US government wouldn't have wanted to let them out of the country.”

Sam realized that Cam was talking to her as much as Qetesh, because he added, “Thing is, if you go looking for the rest of the bombs, now, Ra's going to get suspicious, but if we can locate that Asgard escape pod they recovered at Roswell, the transport—”

His next words were unclear, but it was so obvious that Sam couldn't understand why she hadn't thought of it sooner. The General must have also understood what Cam was getting at because an insert display appeared on the HUD.

“Scan for uranium-235 and plutonium-239,” she told O'Neill.

“...weak fools were stupid enough to have lost the Asgard and his escape pod.” Qetesh's voice was clearer and louder, presumably she was now standing beside Cam. “You will have the weapon that I acquired prepared by tomorrow morning. Ra has the dialing device and is bringing it to the Chappa'ai as we speak. Once it is installed...”

Sam could barely make out of the next few words, but it sounded like Qetesh was planning on having the nuke ringed to Ra's ship when he was taking a new host.

“Son of a bitch,” the General said, shaking his head.

“What's wrong now?” Bennett demanded from the back of the jumper, belatedly adding, “Sir.”

Daniel answered. “Qetesh wants Ra nuked when he's taking her son—”

“It's not Qetesh's son,” O'Neill abruptly reminded them. “It's Vala's.”

Bennett's face screwed up in confusion, but there was no time to explain the bizarre reproductive dichotomies of hosts andsymbiotes. “Why wait until then?” Sam wondered.

“She fears Ra.” Teal'c said simply. “And she is a Goa'uld.”

Suddenly, Sam understood. Ra had survived countless attempts on his life by preemptively moving against treacherous offspring. Fearing Ra would smell a trap even before she'd ringed the nuke aboard, Qetesh was capitalizing on the one instance when she could be absolutely certain he was vulnerable.

And she was deliberately using Vala's son to do it. The stark reality of Cam's reminder, that Qetesh allowed Vala's consciousness to witness her atrocities, drove home to Sam exactly why he wanted an end to this. It was a living nightmare that Sam, who'd had the unwelcome  experience of some ofJolinar's more horrific memories, could barely comprehend. Insanity would have been merciful, but based on what Cam had told them, Vala had tenaciously clung to one hope: that SG-1 would go back in time and undo this horror.

Bennett looked around at them, as if their facial expressions alone would provide him with an answer. “Taking? What do you  mean taking?”

While they'd briefed Bennett on several points, their explanation of the world of the future hadn't gotten has far as Goa'uld physiology. “As a host,” Sam explained through gritted teeth. “The Goa'uld are a parasitic race that infect human brains and take complete control of their minds and bodies.”

'“But not their souls,” Daniel said quietly. “Never that. We can't let Qetesh take over from Ra, Jack,” His tone became impassioned. “I didn't think it was possible, but she's worse—far worse. If we fail to get back, we can't unleash that...thing on the galaxy.”

Sam glanced at O'Neill, who was staring intently—too intently—at the HUD. He hadn't answered Daniel, but she knew, just by looking at him, that he was in total agreement. “Asgard transport?” he asked.

“Fully operational,” An replied.

“Carter?”

The General was thinking the same thing as Sam, because two signals, quite close together, flickered on the screen. She studied the HUD for a moment before pointing to one and glancing over her shoulder at An. “Can you get a lock on these signals and beam one of them out of there?”

“Yes,” An replied, blinking. “Which one?”

Sam gave him the frequency of Cam's subcutaneous locator implant.

“Sam?” Daniel asked. “You planning on beaming out Cam?”

“And the nukes, in,” O'Neill finished.

“What about the hand DHD?”

“With Ra and Qetesh dead,” Teal'c said, “Colonel Mitchell will readily take control of the Stargate and the Jaffa.”

On the HUD the image had altered and was now displaying several separate sources of uranium-235 and plutonium-239, including Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where the uranium was enriched, Wright, Fort Worth, White Sands and Alaska. “Take your pick, Colonel,” O'Neill said.

Cam's voice, flat and lacking any emotion whatsoever, came through the radio. “If you're getting any of this, General, I'm currently alone inside the transport bay of Qetesh's Ha'tak, and from what I can tell, I'm standing in front of 'Little Boy's' twin brother. Qetesh managed to get only one nuke. I'm kinda hoping you might be able to scrounge up one more.”

The possibilities began running through Sam's mind as she recalled exactly how the bomb was configured.

“Little Boy' was easy to detonate. In fact, that was the problem. It was almost too easy and it came as a surprise to her that Qetesh had risked transporting it aboard her ship instead of her encampment by the Stargate. Its instability was another detail tat Cam had obviously neglected to mention to the Goa'uld, but one which now worked in their favor.

“We're reading you, Cam,” she replied, “I'm going to have two of the 'Little Boy' models beamed someplace safe where I can arm them, then we'll beam you to safety.” Turning to the General, she said, “Sir, focus on signals of only uranium-235. The 'Fat Man' models used plutonium but 'Little Boy' only utilized U-235.”

“Sam, if I suddenly vanish before the explosion,” Cam replied, “Ra and Qetesh will know the Asgard are involved and that they're up to something. You're going to have to wait until the armed bombs are aboard both ships before you beam me anywhere.”

The General exchanged a look with her. “That's going to make things kinda tight, Mitchell.”

“No choice, sir,” Cam replied, effectively putting an end to the discussion.

He was right, of course, but given how unstable these nukes were, it was a huge risk, Sam knew, albeit a necessary one. “Sir, to distinguish actual bombs from stored uranium, we need individual units that contain masses of fifty-six and one half pounds, plus eighty-four and one half pounds, separated only be a few feet.”

“Why separated?” Daniel asked.

“Because that's how the bombs function. By bringing two sub-critical masses of U-235 together, you get atomic fission.”

“Got nine,” O'Neill said. “Two at Wright, the four at White Sands and...crap. Make that three. One's moving at around a hundred and fifty miles an hour, and accelerating. Army must be playing musical chairs with the things. There's another picking up speed from Forth Worth.”

“An, can you beam two of the U-235 units...” Sam thought for a moment. She needed somewhere safe to work, but she also needed to remain in contact with Cam. The Goa'uld generally remained in geosynchronous orbit above the Stargate, which meant that anywhere in the US would do. “I'm not entirely certain that they can be transported without detonating them so don't beam them aboard the jumper. We need someplace well away from civilization.”

An adjusted the settings, and then met her eyes. “Yes.”

She was about to ask whether 'yes' was simply a response to her question, when the General said. “Looks like you've got your nukes, Carter.”

Turning to the HUD, she saw two distinct U-235 signatures not far from the original test sight at Alamogordo.

“These units contain an extremely volatile isotope,” An remarked. “Such weapons would have dire consequences for the environment in which it is used. I believe the half-life for depletion is in the order of seven hundred and fourteen million years. This location is near an already contaminated site.”

“No kidding,” O'Neill muttered, putting the jumper into a descent over New Mexico.

“Sam?” Cam called. “Qetesh will be back here every five goddammed minutes, bugging me to hurry up, and I need to at least look like I know what I'm doing.”

“Start disassembling the tail fin and explain to her that the trigger mechanism is inside. It won't interfere with the bomb itself. Assuming the bombs we've acquired are designed to use cordite triggers, it shouldn't take me more than ten minutes or so to arm each of them.”

“Okay, I'll keep the radio on; just don't call me.”

During the jumper's descent, Bennett, who must have caught on to what was going on, said, “I appreciate all that you folks are doing to help us, but I don't understand why.”

“We're all fighting the same enemy, Commander,” Daniel said, diplomatically ducking the question.

“We are not at war with the Goa'uld,” An objected.

“No,” Daniel agreed, “but you needed our help in fighting the Replicators, and—”

“We're the Fifth Race,” Jack interrupted.

Sam glanced at An, who was staring at the General intently. Another green food cube materialized from someplace and An wordlessly place it into his mouth.

Preoccupied with reviewing the trigger mechanism of the uranium A-bombs, she barely heard the conversation between Teal'c, Bennett, Daniel and An, until the jumper landed.

“Okay, Colonel, you're on,” O'Neill said.

Leaving her laptop balanced on the control panel, Sam stood and followed the others outside, stopping on the way to collect a screwdriver, C-4 and some detonators.

The bombs, each painted black, sat side by side in wheeled, reinforced metal cradles.

“They're...bulky,” Daniel said, stepping out beside her.

“Ten feet long.” Sam walked around behind the tailfin of one, to the access plate on the left side, and immediately began unscrewing. “And twenty eight inches in diameter. Antiquated, and not exactly a huge blast at about fifteen kilotons, but enough to blow Ra's ship.”

“Not huge? Colonel, I've seen the photos from Hiroshima and Nagasaki....” Bennett paused and stared at her. “Did you really blow up a sun?”

She winced and glanced at O'Neill who was giving her an odd look. “Scopolamine, sir. I was a little out of it there, for a while.” Then she added in a business-like manner, before he could say anything about it, “Sir, arming this could be dangerous. I would recommend leaving me here and taking the jumper well outside—”

“The faster you arm them, Sam, the sooner we can all get out of here.” Daniel was peering at the radar assembly on the nose.

“Hope you're quick on the draw,” O'Neill said to An, who was staring at the weapons with undisguised repugnance. Then General's comment elicited a spate of blinking.

Sam smiled at An. “He means you'll have to be quick getting Colonel Mitchell off Qetesh's ship once we beam the bombs aboard.”

“I will transport your Colonel Mitchell from the ship moments prior to sending the weapons. The Goa'uld will not have sufficient time to react.”

Sam nodded and turned back to the bombs. Packing in the C-4 in lieu of a cordite trigger wasn't going to be a problem. It was the dismantling of several safety mechanisms that, combined, prevented an electrical circuit from completing before the bomb reached an altitude of sixteen hundred feet. Removing those safety mechanisms was what concerned her most. On the plus side, this was not alien technology, and there were no booby-traps to negotiate.

Just 1947 atomic bomb technology with flimsy, hairpin triggers.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

The radio came to life just as Carter finished packing the C-4 into the chamber of the first bomb. Jack had full confidence in her ability to hotwire the nukes, nevertheless the instability of these damn things was making him sweat in some very uncomfortable places. And it was taking her considerably longer than anticipated.

“Jack,” Daniel called from inside the jumper. “Cam's back on the air.”

“Tell him two minutes, max,” Sam said, tightening some-thing on the side of the device with rather more force than Jack thought necessary for something she'd kept reminding them was incredibly delicate.

He headed inside to speak with the First Prime who, in another time, had been an outstanding US Air Force officer—and still would be, once they got back to 1908.

“Ra's back on board his ship,” Daniel told Jack as he slid into the jumper's pilot seat.

“What's your status, Mitchell?” Jack asked.

“Ra was injured recovering the DHD. Apparently the Russians put up quite a fight. Can't say I didn't warn him, but he's still pissed.”

As it had been in almost every communication they'd had with him, Mitchell's voice was flat and unemotional. Given that Vala's kids were involved, and based on what Mitchell had told them—or not told them—in the Met, Jack had a fair idea why Cam, First Prime to Qetesh, would prefer not coming out of this alive.

“He doesn't want to waste time in a sarcophagus in the middle of an invasion,” Mitchell continued. “He's decided to take his new host now.”

“So the timing's moved up.” Crap. Of course it had.

“More than you know. I'm having the bomb placed in a chest which, as far as Ra's concerned, is full of gifts that Qetesh acquired in DC. Then I'm escorting the bomb and Serapsis to Ra's ship. Sort of a goodwill gesture to prove her loyalty. Serapsis is dressing for the occasion as we speak.”

“Carter says we can beam an armed nuke to Ra's ship in about two minutes.”

The radio was quiet for a moment, and then, “You still tracking my implant signal?”

Jack glanced at the HUD. “Affirmative.”

“Damn, the batteries on those things must be good,” Mitchell said, offering a rare glimpse of the man that Jack remembered. “Serapsis will be here any second. Beam the first nuke into the engine room of Qetesh's ship six minutes after we arrive on Ra's ship. Get Sam to set it for immediate detonation.”

“Are you sure?”

“Ra's in a hurry but it'll still take Serapsis a few minutes to get from the ring room to his chamber. I won't be allowed out of the ring room during that time, which is when I've been ordered to detonate this nuke. If Ra's ship doesn't blow within five minutes of our arrival, Qetesh will assume she's screwed and take off. Gotta go.”

“In ordering Colonel Mitchell to sacrifice himself,” Teal'c said, following Jack outside, “Qetesh intends to blame the Tau'ri for the death of Ra and her First Prime.”

“Sir, first bomb is ready to go. I've set the timer. Teal'c can you standby?” Carter moved across to the second device.

“When Qetesh's ship is destroyed, Ra's First Prime will assume they are under attack from the Tau'ri, and order an immediate jump to hyperspace,” Teal'c added, taking his place by the weapon.

Of course he would. “Carter? How long before that second bomb is ready?”

She was unscrewing the access plate. “Fifteen minutes, General.”

“You got eight.”

Her eyes rounded, but she knew better than to comment.

Daniel was bouncing around like a nervous cat. “By replacing Cam with Ra's First Prime and adding the surviving Royal Guards to her own, Qetesh ensures immediate loyalty from the rest of Ra's Jaffa.”

“Not if we can help it.” Jack turned and went back inside the jumper. “An, of buddy, you ready to deliver the pizza?”

The Asgard blinked at him, which Jack took to mean yes.

On the HUD, Cam's signal had jumped and appeared on the screen in the same proximity as the signal denoting Ra's ship. Besides Jack, Daniel stood restlessly for several tense, silent minutes. Even Bennett, who had earlier been plying them with an endless stream of questions, had picked up on the tension if not the entire reason for it, and sat in a passenger chair with his eyes fixed to the HUD.

“Aren't you supposed to be helping Carter?” Jack asked him.

“The Colonel said she can do it faster without me.”

The hooks in Jack's gut dug in deeper with the passing minutes.

“Don't beam me out!” Cam's voice came over the radio, followed immediately by several staff blasts before the transmission was cut off.

Crap. “Teal'c!” Jack yelled.

“I am ready, O'Neill,” Teal'c replied.

A reassuring light streamed in from outside the jumper. The first bomb was away, and instinctively, all of them except An went outside to look up. The ten-second wait took a whole lot longer. The night—when had it become night?—was silent, only a sprinkling of stars breaking up the darkness.

“How long was the fuse on that thing, T?” Jack wondered.

“It was a timer, sir, not a fuse,” Carter replied, her face still buried in the second device.

“Don't split hairs, Colonel.”

“Ten sec—”

Before she could finish, the night was extinguished by a massive ball of light exploding silently above them. It always gave Jack a warm fuzzy feeling to think they'd destroyed another one of those parasitic monsters, but he couldn't bring himself to relax yet. There was one more to go.

“Wow!” Daniel said, staring up at the sky.

“Indeed, Daniel Jackson,” Teal'c agreed. “It appears from here much like the destruction of the Death Star.”

“Six times he made me see that movie,” Jack muttered to no one in particular.

“Dear God!” Bennett breathed in awe. “Did we do that?”

“Some of it,” Carter said, screwing something in place. “The naquadah would have enhanced it considerably.”

“How long do you think it will take Ra's crew to notice that his daughter has just been vaporized?” Daniel asked.

“Colonel O'Neill,” An called from within the jumper. “The second Ha'tak is powering up its sub-light engines.”

“Right about now.”

“Cam—” Daniel began, but Jack cut him off.

“I know. Carter!” Jack went back inside.

“Still have to disconnect the last fail-safe, sir,” she called after him.

“The Ha'tak is now opening a hyperspace window,” An informed them.

He could see that, but there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it.

“We have to send the second bomb,” Daniel said. “Before Ra leaves.”

“And who's gonna detonate it?” Jack demanded, meeting his gaze. He knew Carter would volunteer, but he still had a couple of seconds to play with.

Outside, the fireworks from Qetesh's ship were raining down in the night sky.

“Ready!” Sam announced, running inside the jumper.

“Wait!” Jack ordered An, relieved that at least one thing was going their way.

“Sir, if Ra gets away—”

“Mitchell's still on board.”

“Thirty seconds to hyperspace drive,” An announced in standard Asgard monotone.

“Teal'c, set it for two seconds on my mark!” Jack called.

“Twenty six seconds. Shall I extract Colonel Mitchell?”

Mitchell was dead either way, and if they were gonna be stuck in 1947, Jack'd sooner it be without Ra. “Give him another couple of seconds.”

“Jack! Ra's ship's picking up speed—”

“Now! Send the bomb now!” he ordered An, as the blip that was Mitchell disappeared from Ra's ship, presumably ringed down to New York. No guarantee of that because from the jumper's current location on the ground, the HUD was limited to line-of-sight.

A few tense moments later and another, much more distant explosion lit the night. Bennett, mouth agape in wonder, went outside the jumper to better see.

“That should  make  for some cool  meteorites,” Jack remarked, hoping he sounded a lot more relaxed than he felt right now. Mitchell's ringing out of Ra's ship did not necessarily mean he'd be able to recover the hand DHD without a fight, but at least he'd have the satisfaction of seeing Ra dead.

Or would he? Vala, Serapsis, and Seshat were also dead, and Jack was almost certain there was a whole other story there that Mitchell would never talk about.

“Makes the Pegasids look scanty,” Daniel said quietly. “Vala would probably have liked that.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

“Someone order a handheld time travel device and portable DHD?”

It had taken only a few minutes to reach sufficient height to locate Cam's beacon and beam him aboard. Now, as he stood there in the cramped cockpit of the jumper, he was holding the same device that Daniel had seen on the back of the elderly Cassie's hand, some undefined time in the future. While Commander Bennett instinctively jerked back from the armored, and very bloodied apparition, Daniel grinned.

Teal'c, also smiling broadly, somehow managed a bow. “You have done well, Colonel Mitchell.”

“Couldn't have done it without you.” He nodded gratefully at all of them. “Seriously.”

Still with her laptop balanced on her knees, Sam looked up at Cam apologetically. “On Ra's ship—”

“I told you not to beam me out, Sam, remember?”

“Yeah, but...” A brief smile crossed her face. “I'm glad you're safe.”

“Ra's First Prime had the damned thing on him when he ringed aboard Ra's ship,” Cam said, handing the hand DHD to Sam. “Lost the radio when I was trying to get if off him. Once I took care of that, I figured ringing down out would save us all a lot of time and grief.” The smile on his face was at complete odds with the pain in his eyes. “You could probably use the New York Stargate to go back in time, but the DHD hasn't been set up there, yet, so there'll be no interference with the signal if you want to use the Antarctic 'gate instead.”

Slipping the device over her hand, Sam nodded. The jewel on the cuff immediately began to glow. “I think it would be wiser to make time jumps between the same physical 'gates.”

“And remember—”

Sam moved the laptop and stood. Taking in a deep breath, she embraced him and said, “Three Finger Brown.”

“And this timeline will cease exist,” Teal'c said.

Cam turned to him and with a voice tired beyond measure, replied, “Teal'c, there aren't words to describe how much I'm looking forward to that.”

“Just say, for instance, something else goes wrong and we don't make it back, or this timeline keeps going.” Jack turned and met Sam's glare. “I'm just pointing out what you said earlier.”

“Thought about that,” Cam replied, “and what you said to me in the Park, Teal'c. I don't think it'll take a hell of a lot of convincing to get them to bury the Stargate. The capstones are at the museum.”

“Someone could open it again, Cam,” Daniel warned, glancing at Bennett.

“Someone did, as I recall.” A grin briefly crossed Cam's face as he met Daniel's eyes. “And figured out how to use it. It's like I said, I've set things up on several planets for people and Jaffa—to take care of themselves. Everyone on Earth knows about the 'gate, and they've experienced a taste of what's out there.”

He glanced at Bennett, and Sam briefly explained how he'd come to team up with them, then shook his hand and said, “Thanks for everything.”

Bennett met each of their eyes in turn, then settled on Sam's. “Thank you, Colonel.”

“Well, son,” Cam said to him, “if you and I are still here when these guys reset the clock, you're about to begin a new career as the negotiator for an interplanetary peace treaty. Who knows? Maybe we'll prevent the Cold War before it even starts. But right now, I've got several hundred very confused Jaffa hanging around the 'gate, wondering what the hell happened to Ra and Qetesh, so we better get down there.” He turned to An. “Scottie, beam us out.”

An stood. “My name is An, and I am going with you.”

“What do you mean?” Jack objected. “The entire reason we went through this was to recover you—and don't even start on Asgard law, because—”

“He's right, sir,” Sam interrupted, reaching for the transport controls.

“Oh, for cryin' out loud!”

“I belong in this time—and this timeline,” An replied simply.

Nodding, Sam added, “We'll recover you in our 1947. We have to, because it's the only thing that explains the tunnel on the wrong side of the Antarctic 'gate.”

“What wrong tunnel?” Jack demanded.

“There's a jumper sized hole on the far side of the Antarctic Stargate, sir, not the side where the vortex hits. I've often speculated—”

“Stop!” Jack ordered, wincing. Daniel suspected a migraine was hovering. “Carter. If you say so, I believe you.”

She smiled thinly. “Trust me, sir. This will work.”

“That's what you said when you sent me on this merry goose chase,” he reminded her.

“That was the future me, sir.”

“Whatever. Let's just get the hell outta here.”

“An?” Sam smiled at him. “Will you be okay, here...if?”

“I will be fine, Colonel Carter. Your speculation that this timeline will continue on a separate path is the most likely scenario. Once an Asgard ship comes to investigate, they will detect my locator beacon. I also believe that the High Council will be very interested to learn about this.” He glanced around at the jumper. “Fifth Race, indeed.”

Jack turned to Cam and grinned before addressing Commander Bennett. “Meanwhile, you can take him to your leader.”

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

Vala's words broke through the steel wool clag that inhabited Cam's skull. “Y'know, you have to wonder, don't you?”

Opening one eye, he saw her sitting with her back to a soot-covered brick wall, young Howard huddled beside her, apparently hanging off every word. “Regards to what?”

“Well, let's face it,” Vala was saying. “Assuming the Ancients did recreate all life in this galaxy, what were they thinking when they created the Goa'uld? I've come across some nasty specimens in my time, but a creature that mixes its DNA with a human to create a slave race, and then sets itself up as a god?”

“Didn't you say they were false gods?” Howard asked.

“As distinct from true gods? I mean have you encountered any of those around the universe?” She smiled and turned to him. “No of course you haven't but aside from the odd fundamentalist who doesn't seem to need proof in any form, I haven't met anyone yet who really fits that description. And let's face it, the Ancients aren't stacking up too well in that regard, despite this whole Ascension thing they've got going.”

“What...the hell happened?” Cam asked, pushing himself up. The last thing he remembered was walking into a tack room and—crap. “Did someone shoot me?”

He brought his hand up and felt around his groin. It was tacky with dried blood, and there was a hole in the cloth directly above...

Vala smiled at him brightly. “Oh good, you're awake. We better get going before it gets too light, or we'll be spending the day hiding among these garbage cans. And yes, you did get shot, but don't worry, all the bits are back in place and it's all healed up. As to whether they're in working order—”

A white light in front of his eyes blurred everything for a moment and then he was...

...staring at the back of a seat inside the jumper—which rapidly turned into a pair of dust-covered glasses with a frowning Daniel Jackson behind them, demanding to know if he was all right.

“Peachy.” Which was more than he could say for the slightly—well, badly—singed looking guy lying on the deck beside him. “Who's that?”

Jackson didn't reply but instead swiveled around and said to Vala, “Can you heal him?”

“Hello, Vala,” she said. “It's ever so nice to see you survived crashing through the floor of a burning building, not to mention your heroic rescue of Colonel Mitchell, and that you healed that rather nasty hole in his—”

“Yes, yes, thank you Vala, you did a superb job but can you please heal this man otherwise...well, we really, really, don't have time to go into the reasons right now, but take my word for it, the future of the human race depends on it.”

Jackson's words tumbled out so fast it took Cam a few moments to process them.

Vala—having not been so recently shot and apparently mortally wounded—picked up on the situation immediately. “Oh, well why didn't you say as much?”

Grasping hold of the jumper's passenger seat, Cam pulled himself to his feet. The light from Vala's hand device filled the cargo bay. He peered out through the windscreen. The jumper was about two thousand miles above the Eastern seaboard. Then he glanced at Sam, and noticed that she was wearing most of a set of Jaffa armor. A quick check of O'Neill, Teal'c and Jackson confirmed that they were similarly dressed.

Squinting at Daniel, Cam said, “Look, Jackson, I know you weren't happy with the whole bonnet thing, but did I miss something, here?”

“What do you mean?” Daniel stared at him in confusion.

“The Jaffa outfits?”

“What?” O'Neill remarked from the pilot seat. “You don't like our new uniforms?”

Daniel offered up a cryptic smile and turned to look out the windscreen, then an image on the HUD. It seemed nobody was willing to offer an explanation. “Looks like the fire's under control,” he said to Jack, who nodded with relief.

“There was a fire?”

The light faded, and Vala paused and sat back on her heels. He could see her disguise was ripped and burned in places, her hair looked like it had tangled with the Godzilla of hair dryers and the sweat on her face was making railway tracks through a solid layer of soot.

“Is something wrong?” Daniel asked with concern.

“I'm going to need a few moments,” Vala said. “Do you need him nice and shiny new? Or just, you know, not dead?”

“He was dead?” Sam briefly dragged her attention away from her laptop.

“I'm good.” Vala lifted her hand and the light played over the guy again. “But I'm not that good. Still, he would have been dead soon enough.”

“He has to be completely fit and healthy,” Daniel said, directing his remark to Vala.

“This is going to take a while, then,” said Vala. “He's in a bad way.”

The grizzly burn that had taken off half the guy's face began to heal over.

Cam watched her for a moment and then turned to Daniel. “Will someone please tell me what's going on around here? I'm out of it for a few hours, and—”

“More like decades,” Daniel muttered.

“Then we can get back to Antarctica,” said the General.

Antarctica. Cam peered out the windscreen again. They were definitely still over the United States, although he could see clear down to Cuba from this aspect.

“Sam?”

She looked up, and her gaze briefly settled on his forehead before she offered him a tired smile. That's when he noticed she looked like she'd been through a couple of fires herself. “Hey, Cam. It's good to see you. Really.” She turned back to I the computer.

“How's Three Finger doing?” O'Neill asked.

“Three Finger?” The name, weird as it was, rang a bell. Cam turned his attention to Vala's patient.

“If you mean this gentleman,” Vala replied, “On whom the future of the human race apparently rests, almost as good as new— Whoa!” A beam of light enveloped Three Finger and he vanished while she was speaking. She turned to Sam in outrage. “What did you do that, for?”

“He was healed, right?”

“Well yes, but you could have given me a moment's warning.

The view outside abruptly altered as the jumper took off in a southerly direction. “Sorry, but we couldn't afford for him to wake up in here.”

“Mordecai 'Three Finger' Brown,” Daniel replied, “died in the fire we accidentally started at Brown University in 1908, setting in motion a chain of events that—”

“It wasn't supposed to happen,” Sam finished, her attention split between her laptop and an Asgard scanner that looked significantly different to the model that had been sitting there just a few hours earlier. “We had to make sure that this time, he survived.”

This time?

She offered Cam another brief smile and returned her attention to her computer, leaving him no more enlightened than he had been a few moments ago.

Hoping the Jaffa might know something, Cam looked to Teal'c. “Hey, buddy—”

“It is good to see you again, Colonel Mitchell,” Teal'c said. “I am pleased that you are no longer First Prime to Qetesh.”

Cam stared at him blankly. Vala reacted immediately, however. Her head snapped up. “Qetesh? Please don't tell me she's involved in any of this?”

Cam didn't even want to know about Qetesh. But he'd just realized someone was missing who'd been here the last time he was in the jumper. “What have you done with Loki?”

Outside, they were just coming up to Florida.

“Pull up a chair, Mitchell,” O'Neill suggested. “It's a very long story.” Then he glanced at Sam and added with a distinctly childish smirk, “And Carter can't wait to tell you all about it.”

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

So, somewhere out there in a, presumably budded-off time loop, Vala thought, she'd married that rather nice boy from her village, most likely had several babies—real babies, not the genetically created abomination that the Ori had used her body to manufacture, just so they could break the Ancients' rules—and lived a fully and doubtless happy life free of Goa'uld infestation.

On the other hand, another version of herself had ended up back in the hands of Qetesh, had two children destined to become hosts for Ra and Qetesh—which was an option that she really would much prefer not to think about—and ended up being...what? “Was the nuclear bomb actually detonated aboard Qetesh's ship?”

From the front seat of the jumper, Sam's expression turned pensive. “Yes.”

Well, it could have been worse. She could have ended up in Baal's company again—another option that definitely was not worth thinking about.

“And I stayed behind to clean up the mess, huh?” Cam said.

If Sam's smile seemed a little forced, her tone was more upbeat. “Last seen, Cam, you were about to take an Asgard to meet Harry S. Truman.”

While Vala had no idea what was so amusing, Cam laughed. “What, you mean like take me to your leader?'

“See,” General O'Neill remarked from the pilot's seat. “He thinks it's funny.”

The jumper was descending in darkness, but the HUD indicated they were coming up to a landmass that, enhanced on the screen, Vala recognized as the frozen continent at the bottom of the planet—bottom, of course, being a term that hardly meant much from space, but it was another one of those cultural things she'd gotten down quite well. A reassuring blip denoting naquadah indicated that the second Stargate was present there. It was midwinter and the current outside temperature was, according to the display, a bracing minus forty-three degrees. Centigrade. “Chilly. Tell me we're not going to have to get out and dig?”

The blip on the screen enlarged, and Sam replied, “The Antarctic 'gate was left behind by the Ancients when they took Atlantis to the Pegasus Galaxy, millions of years ago. When General O'Neill and I arrived here by accident in 1998, the 'gate was buried beneath a glacier several hundred feet deep.”

“What about when the Ancients came back, ten thousand years ago?”

“We believe that was through the 'gate at Giza,” said Daniel, “Which Ra put there in prehistoric times, soon after he took his first human host. According to Plato, the Atlanteans had 'subjugated the lands of Libya and Egypt' before their descendants moved to Athenia—modern day Athens. We now know that most of the Lanteans left because they found Earth too primitive.

“Prior to the construction of the pyramids, Ra sometimes didn't return to Earth for decades, even centuries at a time. There's no naquadah on Earth, so it wasn't the most desirable of locations except insofar as it provided a readymade population of slaves. Presumably that's why he began extracting entire civilizations and seeding them around the galaxy to naquadah-rich planets.”

Before Daniel had a chance to get too deeply into the entire history of Earth, Sam, thankfully, jumped ahead. “In 1998,” she explained, “I was kind of surprised that the Antarctic 'gate wasn't completely buried in ice, with only a cavern the size of the one we found ourselves in under Cheyenne Mountain. Instead, much of the area around the 'gate and DHD had been thoroughly excavated, and there was a tunnel all the way to the surface.”

“Positively homely, I thought,” said the General.

Sam winced, which reminded Vala that she had a considerable amount of reading to catch up on when they returned to the SGC.

“Didn't you find dead Jaffa near the DHD?” Cam asked.

“Two. We think the Jaffa tried to blast their way out using their staff weapons, but dating of the bodies indicated that that was thousands of years ago,” Sam explained. “Probably soon after the Egyptian 'gate was buried, but the thing is, I found a tunnel to the surface.”

“And this is unusual because...?”

“There's very little snowfall over that area of the Antarctic, so little that it's actually classified as a desert. Consequently the glacier over the 'gate is relatively slow moving. With no rainfall or melt-water tunneling through crevasses, there shouldn't have been any kind of opening to the surface, certainly not one that close to the 'gate.

“There was also a tunnel the exact size and shape of a jumper leading out the other side. It was just too coincidental. Slow moving doesn't mean no movement, however, and even had the Jaffa and the Ancients created the tunnels, both would have completely closed within a few decades. Glaciologists calculated that whatever burrowed through to the 'gate must have done so sometime within the previous fifty years.”

“And that someone was you?” Vala asked.

“Took a little while,” O'Neill said, angling the jumper down.

“And a lot of naquadah,” Sam added. “But I ran the calculations before we left. We still have enough for the next leg.”

“Next leg?” The display on the HUD altered to show an enhanced illumination of the landscape—or more correctly, snowscape—which, apart from some rather attractive magnetic field lights in the sky, was in darkness. That's when she remembered that Earth rotated slightly off its access, and that this end of the planet was in winter.

“I recalibrated the force field to repel ice, in the same way that Dr. Radek Zelenka generated a force field around the Atlantis jumper to repel water,” Sam explained.

“Hang on a minute,” Cam said. “You said fifty years? Isn't this 1908?”

“I think that's where the 'next leg' comment comes in, but being one of those cultural references, I really couldn't say for certain,” Vala said, raising her eyebrows at Sam.

“Which means someone tunneled through the ice sometime around 1947-48,” she replied, smiling. “And since we know the Antarctic 'gate DHD doesn't have sufficient power to dial out--”

“We're using that to make a stop in 1947 to collect An and Loki,” Daniel finished..

“Actually, we dug down through it once in 1947, but that was a different timeline, so it doesn't count,” O'Neill added. He frowned and glanced at Sam. “It doesn't, does it?”

She smiled and nodded, which Cam appeared to find infuriating.

The jumper slowed before plunging into a tunnel, to emerge a short time later in a pitch-black cavern illuminated only by the craft's headlights. Vala had been watching their progress and had not noticed that Sam had retrieved something until she slid it over her hand. “Ah...isn't that—?

“Yeah,” O'Neill said. “Carter?”

“Ready, sir.”

“Dial away.”

“Just out of curiosity, why are we collecting both An and Loki?”

“Because Loki has to survive so he can go on to feature in all those alien abduction stories that Teal'c likes so much,” Daniel said. “Once you heal the worst of his injuries, we'll beam him aboard his ship.”

“And by using the Antarctic 'gate,” Sam explained when they emerged from the other end of the wormhole to a considerably smaller cavern, “we haven't risked bumping into ourselves or anyone else.”

During the time it took to tunnel through the ice in what was presumably 1947, Vala detailed her perilous escape from the burning building and her rescue of Cam. She left out the bits about telling Howard all about the true state of affairs in the galaxy, until Daniel said, “Cthulhu?

“Who?”

“C'mon, Vala, we know you must have told Lovccraft about the Goa'uld and the Ori.”

“Me? Don't be silly. You know I'd never do anything like that.”

“It's okay, Vala.” Sam offered her a reassuring smile. “Lovecraft became a famous horror writer.”

“Really? Oh, well, in that case, K'thloo was this rather yukky creature with lots of tentacles around his mouth, that I stumbled across about a year or so after I'd managed to divest myself from Qetesh. Well, stumbled probably wasn't quite accurate so much as I borrowed something from him...”

CHAPTER FIFTY

“What...what is happening?” An asked.

Jack glanced over his shoulder at the Asgard lying prone on the jumper's cargo bay. “We finished here?” he asked Carter.

“Yes, sir.”

“What about the Stargate, Sam?” Daniel asked.

“I scanned for naquadah,” she replied. “The Stargate is in the same military storage facility in DC that we found in 1968, and the DHD is in Moscow.”

The Asgard began to stir, and struggled to sit up. “Where... am I?”

“Now, now, be a good little Asgard and stay still,” Vala admonished. “I've got some nice green food for you, but you have to lay back and have a couple of red ones, first.”

The ice tunnel appeared and Jack angled the jumper into if for what he hoped was the last time that day. When they emerged in the cavern, Carter looked around and, taking a deep breath, said, “Makes you wonder, doesn't it?”

Right now, Jack was only wondering how long it would take to get from the 'gate room to Landry's bathroom. There was a hot shower waiting for him, along with one of Walter's coffees. Saying, 'no' wasn't likely to stop Carter from answering what he wished was only a rhetorical question, so he said, “Five words, Carter, that's it, then dial the 'gate.”

Smiling she ran her hand across the portable DHD. The absence of a kawoosh took some getting used to, but thankfully, this was the last time he'd have to think about that. “Time travel. Could be interesting.” She entered the code on her GDO.

“Maybe you can get a few tips from General Carter,” he said, staring up at the control room as the jumper settled onto the newly installed ramp. He was pleased to see the Perspex had been replaced, along with the new .50 caliber guns.

Caroline Lam was waiting for Daniel at the bottom of the hatch. For once, Jack didn't feel like putting up much of an objection when she waited for him to emerge and frowning, crossed her arms and said, “You might have told me about the ribs before you left.”

General Carter, who was standing nearby, had the grace to offer him an apologetic smile when he stepped off the ramp. “Thank you. All of you,” she said, turning her smile to the rest of them. “I know you've been through a great deal, and I'm sorry I couldn't warn you in advance but, well, I'm sure you understand why.”

Carter—their Carter—was staring intently at her older self. “How do we know you're actually from our timeline?”

The General turned to her. “Time travel—” She dialed the 'gate using the remote DHD on her hand. “Could be interesting.”

“Oh, you really were quite lovely when you were young, weren't you?” Herbert waddled into the 'gate room and beamed at all of them. Shaking Jack's hand, he said, “Don't worry, I promised you I'd take care of her, and I have. Come, my dear, time to go home.”

Carter opened her mouth to speak to General Carter, but then she shook her head. “Guess there's no point asking.”

“No, and you know why. But I will say that Cassie was also right. Your journey is just beginning.”

She turned and helped An, who was still dazed and less than pleased about all of this, out of the jumper and up the ramp.

“You see?” Vala called to Herbert, “I never stole it.”

“Oh, but you will, my dear. You will.”

Vala opened her mouth to reply, but Daniel got in first. “Nice to meet you Mr. George.”

General Carter stepped into the wormhole with An, while Herbert paused and frowned at Daniel. “George is my middle name. My last name is Wells.” The frown cleared. “And we will meet again, you can be certain of that.” He turned and strolled into the wormhole.

When the wormhole fuzzed out behind them, Jack rubbed his hands together. Nothing, absolutely nothing was going to get between him and that shower.

Daniel was standing there with his mouth half open. “Oh my God, do you have any idea who that was?”

“Herbert George Wells...” Carter's voice trailed off and she met Daniel's slightly gobsmacked look.

“What?” Jack demanded, already knowing he was going to regret it.

“Better known as H.G. Wells.”

Vala looked confused. “You mentioned him before. Isn't that the fellow who started some war between worlds?”

Daniel's brows knitted together suspiciously. “No, he only wrote about it.”

“Oh, so he's another writer?” she said with a beaming smile. “Like Howard?”

“Yes, just like Howard,” Daniel agreed, coming up beside Jack with a look on his face Jack guessed reflected his own. “What did you tell him, Vala?”

She took a step backward, her smile fading. “I didn't tell him anything! I never even met him before General Carter arrived here with him.”

“He seems to know you pretty well,” Jack said.

Vala shrugged, assuming an air of wounded innocence. “Well, that's hardly my fault...”

“In all fairness, sir,” Carter said, coming down the ramp with Teal'c and Mitchell. “He did say they were going to meet in the future.”

“Vala might tell him something one day, sir,” Cam agreed. “But she hasn't done anything wrong.”

“Yet,” Teal'c added.

“Thanks for the overwhelming vote of confidence,” she said, frowning at them. “And why are you all looking at me like that anyway? Apparently, while I was busy adding to the depth of your literary history by inspiring some of your most creative writers, you four somehow turned into Jaffa and Mitchell managed a stint as First Prime to a Goa'uld System Lord.”

Jack thought on that for a moment, glanced at Daniel who didn't seem to have answer, either. “Right.”

Vala's beaming smile returned with a vengeance. “Besides, you're missing the most important thing here.”

“What's that?” Daniel asked warily.

“Well, regardless of what I might or might not tell him someday, if I'm going to meet this Herbert Wells fellow in the future, that means we get to do this whole time traveling thing all over again. Won't that be fun?”

[end]

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Sonny Whitelaw

With a degree in geomorphology and anthropology, Sonny Whitelaw decided that a career in academia wouldn't be as much fun as running a dive charter yacht and adventure tourism business in the South Pacific. Photojournalism came as a natural extension to her travels, and Sonny's work has been featured in numerous international publications, including National Geographic. Sonny is the author seven novels includ-ing Stargate SG-l: City of the Gods, Stargate Atlantis: The Chosen, and Stargate Atlantis: Exogenesis, and is currently working on her next title, Stargate Atlantis: Blood Ties. She lives in Brisbane with her two children, and along with Jennifer Fallon is completing a Master's degree in Creative Writing. For more information, visit www.sonnywhitelaw.com

Jennifer Fallon

Jennifer Fallon lives in Central Australia, where she writes full time. At various times in the past, she has worked as a youth worker, a store detective, managed an ISP, a video shop, an international cosmetics company, and once had a job issuing security clearances for contractors working on classified government projects. A former competitive pistol shooter, she currently consults for various government departments in her spare time while finishing her Masters degree in creative writing. Jennifer is also the author of the international bestselling Hythrun Chronicles — Medalon, Treason Keep, Harshini, Wolfblade, Warrior and Warlord, the Second Sons series {Lion of Senet, Eye of the Labyrinth, Lord of the Shadows) and file upcoming Tide Lords series. For more information, visit www.jenniferfallon.com

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