Ripple Effect - Confluence of Circumstance - Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, I am only playing in the world
A/N: Here is another side story / companion piece to my series of SG-1 tales. This one will be different to the others in that I plan to keep adding to it little by little. It may spur me to add on to the other Ripple Effects later on.
Previously: Ch 1 | Ch 2
Ripple Effect - Confluence of Circumstance - Chapter 3
Stargate Command, January 2006
"Cameron!" she cried as she came up behind him and he turned around in his seat in front of the television in the rec-room. He wasn't the only one of course, about four other Mitchells turned around, all but one turned back when they saw it was Sam in her slate grey BDUs who'd called out as she approached with another Carter, the youthful civilian scientist. She glanced at the other Mitchell who hadn't turned back, her companion's 'Shaftboy', who stood up to come around the couch. Cam also stood, moved around the back of the chair he'd commandeered and walked over to her and the ponytailed Carter talking shyly with the younger Mitchell. "Sam and I have figured out how the rupture was originally formed!" she said excitedly while tugging on his arm and getting him to follow her. He turned to Shaftboy who was similarly being tugged forward and just shrugged at his smirk. She nearly chuckled in spite of herself. "With this much information we might be able to get General Landry to stop the operation." she clarified.
"We don't have a lot of time then." he said as they got into the elevator. She nodded absent-mindedly.
"It was your description of the fizzling wormhole that settled it." she elaborated as she dropped into rapid-fire scientist-mode. "Sam here noticed that something was wrong with our assumptions. They didn't fit together and it was all to do with the assumed transit of unstable matter which is supposed to have caused the rupture."
"Except matter transit doesn't fit everything we've observed," added Dr. Carter with a quick frown, "but an energy burst transit does." Both Camerons were already at the point of just nodding and smiling.
"Right, which fits in with what you saw." Sam carried on as she gave Cameron a small smile. "An energy transit of coherently charged polerons of sufficient magnitude could create the vibrational instability necessary to rupture and merge the P-brane mesh of two separate realities."
"If the disruption passes through the event horizon of a singularity and interferes with the discharge of Hawking radiation at the point of the rupture." added Dr. Carter to Sam's excited nod.
"Right, which it did, as we know." Sam said with a smile when they exited the elevator. Cam looked at the SFs standing behind them and they all smiled when he shrugged theatrically. Sam slapped his arm and glared at him. He was so much like her Cameron sometimes she couldn't help how she just reacted to him. She shook her head as they reached General Landry's office to find it empty. "Control Room." she murmured and they all made for the briefing room door and the stairway down.
"And how do we do that?" Landry asked into the subspace comms as they arrived downstairs.
"By doing exactly the same thing the first team did in order to get here." came Colonel Carter's voice from the speakers and all of them froze at the bottom of the stairs. Did she just hear that right? This was deliberate? She gasped and looked at Dr. Carter next to her with the same wide eyes she was seeing in return. Of course it was deliberate. Her mind was racing.
"Alright, Colonel. Return here on the double, Stargate Command-" Landry's sign off was interrupted as Sam called out.
"Wait, General, may I have a word with Colonel Carter?" she asked and Landry raised his eyebrows at the group suddenly filling his control room. He waved her forward and motioned for the SFs to stand off to the side. "Colonel? This is Colonel Carter from P7Y-195." She waited until she got an acknowledgement. "Dr. Carter P9R-152 and I figured out that the rupture was caused by a poleron disruption charge."
"Holy Hannah!" cried Carter over the radio. "Of course! That fits everything from the anomalous energy signature to the loud bang to the uni-directional nature of the disruptions. So to reverse it we need a different charge phase on the poleron stream-"
"With an inverse wave function in order to create a destructive interference burst to cancel out the effects of the first charge-" Dr. Carter added.
"Fired into an open wormhole connected to each individual destination, causing feedback when the connection closes which ripples back to seal that branch of the rupture." concluded Carter over the radio.
"Exactly." cried Sam and Dr. Carter together and she turned around to beam a smile at Cam only to catch him looking over at Captain Mitchell and General Landry with a confused frown. Landry rolled his eyes.
"It means I can send you home, Cameron." she explained with a softer smile than before. He blinked.
"Can you two get on those calculations to invert the field spread and charge equations?" asked Colonel Carter from Prometheus. "It would have been impossible for Carter to do the calculations beforehand since she'd likely have to use a different Stargate to get home, one which merges with the typical path of the Earth to PX7-455 wormhole at some point before the singularity."
"Because it's unlikely General Landry would just let them waltz through the SGC on their way back home." Sam added for the benefit of those in the group without in depth knowledge of high-energy physics.
"You have that right, Colonel." Landry intoned gruffly before looking at her and the young Dr. Carter. "How soon can you get these calculations done?"
"A few hours should be enough to work out all the equations and verify it with some simulations." Dr. Carter said with a look Sam's way. She nodded her confirmation.
"After that it's a matter of calculating the specific parameters necessary for each individual wormhole. They'll each be slightly different." Sam added.
"Get to work, Colonel, Doctor. And rustle up the rest of your counterparts to speed it up if necessary." Landry ordered. Sam nodded with a quick 'yes, sir' and turned to head out into the corridor. Cam followed her out and tugged on her elbow to stop her. She nodded to Dr. Carter who carried on towards the elevator and the labs above with her Captain in tow. She looked at Cameron in curiosity as he frowned slightly and averted his gaze before motioning for her to walk on slowly. He gave a little nod to their escorts who fell back a little at the signal. Sam thanked them for the courtesy before looking over at Cameron again.
"You said you could send me home in there." he began hesitantly. She frowned and nodded. "Sam, I'm not the smartest or most perceptive guy in the world. I can be clueless about all sorts of things. So... don't take this the wrong way." She tilted her head slightly. "I've had a lot of time to sit and think while you and the other Carters have been working on this. The conclusion I kept running into is that diminishing returns is a cosmic phenomenon." Sam scoffed and chuckled at him. He gave her a little smirk.
"Are you trying to use my language to say 'too many cooks spoil the broth', Cam?" she asked with a little quirk of her eyebrow.
"That's how my Grandma would say it, yeah." he added and she smiled with a nod. "You're not going back to your reality." he stated after a moment and she nodded her confirmation. "Then, instead of this reality having two Sam Carters..." He drew his lips into a tight line and glanced at her from the corner of his eye. She suddenly found she couldn't breathe. "Instead of sending me home, how about you send 'us' home?" he asked, stopping in the middle of the corridor. She walked on a step before turning around slowly.
"Are you asking me to move in with you?" she asked with a teasing curl of her lip. He blinked at her and then burst out into laughter as he caught her drift.
"I guess, at a universal level, I am." he replied as she smiled broadly. "It's better than just saying 'Mars needs women', am I right?" She laughed. It felt good to laugh, it felt so good to laugh with him, but she closed her eyes and lifted a hand to cover her mouth as a wave of pain came over her and she took in a shuddering breath. "Sam?" He reached a hand towards her and she moved closer to him, placing both her hands on his chest as she leaned against him. His hand found a grip on her elbow as the other settled on her hip. She looked down and waited a long moment before she could trust her own voice.
"Cam, I'm not her. I can't be her." She looked up and he was shaking his head.
"I know. I'd never ask you to be her. Just as I can't be him." he said gently. She looked down and nodded. "You said this was a second chance, that you wanted to use it to make a difference." She glanced up at him. "Think about it, this second chance will make more of a difference, it will mean more, somewhere where you'd be... unique." She closed her eyes and felt a tear roll down her cheek. He was right. He'd just cut through everything with a logic she should have seen herself right away.
"Are you sure?" she asked in a whisper as she looked into his deep blue eyes. Identical blue eyes. He nodded.
"I'm sure." he intoned. "I don't want to make you feel like you'd be a replacement. Just as I don't want to be a replacement for your Mitchell." She shook her head, but he lifted a hand to precipitate any protest. "The fact still remains, you lost your 'us' and we lost our 'you'." She pulled back and moved to the side of the corridor to lean against the wall. Cam followed and stood close by her. "I'm not saying it would be easy, that you'd just be accepted." She looked at him and just sighed, those things would still be true if she decided to stay here as well. "I will promise you one thing though, Sam. You'll have at least one person in your corner from the start." She bit her lower lip and closed her eyes again.
"Cam, I have to tell you something." she whispered without opening her eyes. "If you had asked me yesterday I would have said no. I'm scared of you. I'm scared of how similar you are to my Cameron, but also of how easily you affect me in ways he didn't. I just lost all my friends and family, my homeworld, my entire reality. I have nothing." She opened her eyes to look at him seriously. "But when you are here, I don't feel any of that. I only feel you." He watched her eyes for a moment.
"What did you say after you punched me in the 'gate room?" he asked in a soft whisper. "'You're all I have left'?" She covered her mouth with a hand as tears welled up in her eyes. "Maybe, Sam, we could agree you weren't talking about the other Mitchell when you said it." He canted his head and held a hand up to her. "Will you take me as I am, Sam? My reality? Because I'll take you as you are, if you let me." She looked down at his hand for a moment before glancing back at his eyes. Seeing only herself reflected in them and in the soft smile he was giving her. She pulled her hand from over her lips and laid her fingers in his raised hand, watching as his fingers slowly closed over hers. She leaned forward and laid her head on his shoulder as he pulled her in closely. "A second chance for all of us." he breathed.
P3R-278, January 2006 (alternate reality)
Cameron stepped through the 'gate, his P90 held up at the ready in expectation of a fusillade of Ori staff weapons, only to find a fire-fight in progress as Ori footsoldiers near the DHD were firing at what looked like SG personnel in the distance. He didn't hesitate, opening up on full-auto with Sam doing the same right alongside him, then dashing to drop off the platform in the direction of the Ancient control pedestal in order to find cover. The Ori had perhaps expected the incoming wormhole to disgorge reinforcements, so when he and Sam came through it caused disarray in the defenders. Once they'd cleared the platform area he reached for his radio while Sam covered his six.
"Jackson, Teal'c, this is Mitchell, do you copy?" he called urgently.
"Mitchell? Seriously?" came the voice of an incredulous archaeologist. "What the Hell happened? We lost contact with you days ago, and only got a destroyed MALP for our trouble when we tried to find out what happened."
"Long story. Listen, we have the Stargate area secure. What's going on?" he asked as he spotted Colonel Reynolds of SG-3 closing in on his location, as well as Major Webster of SG-15.
"We came in Prometheus, Colonel Mitchell, in an attempt to ascertain your fate." Teal'c put in. "We found a contingent of Ori soldiers garrisoned in the vicinity of the Stargate and in a small camp further down the mountain. We are in the process of expelling them from the cliff face village." Cam saw Daniel running his way from the cluster of SG-3 personnel led by Reynolds, only to freeze and pull up his P90 when he saw who was standing next to Cameron by the DHD. The rest of SG-3 and the approaching SG-15 did the same.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, guys. She's with me, I'll explain everything." he said quickly, holding up his hands for calm. Sam slowly unclipped the P90 given to her in the alternate reality and lifted it upside down over her head with her hands well away from the trigger group to indicate her passivity.
"Who is that, Mitchell?" Daniel demanded angrily before raising a hand to his radio. "Teal'c, get up here as soon as you can."
"Acknowledged, Daniel Jackson." came the Jaffa's reply.
"It's Sam, Jackson. It's really Sam. I will explain, just... calm down." Cameron said while Sam slowly offered her gun to an approaching member of SG-15. Daniel snarled without lowering his gun. "Colonel Reynolds, sir, help me calm him down, please." he said with a look to the tense leader of SG-3.
"Dr. Jackson, I know what it looks like-" began the Colonel only for Daniel to growl and cry out in anger before lowering his gun and turning around. "Mitchell, perhaps a quick explanation, for now." Cam turned to look at Sam who's features were a mixture of anxiety, sadness and worry for someone who must seem just like her friend.
"What is this, Mitchell? Sam is dead!" cried the linguist as he moved towards Cameron. "She died! You were there! Who is that?"
"Daniel, please..." he implored of his friend in a soft tone, the way he spoke gave a moment's pause to the archaeologist and Cam took advantage. "When the Ori arrived I dialled home ready to jump through the 'gate as soon as possible, but the SGC I dialled wasn't in this reality." he explained only for Daniel to scowl angrily.
"Several realities found wormholes to the SGC, which passed in the vicinity of the singularity created by the destruction of Kallana, intersecting and being funnelled into a single hub reality and-" Sam's attempt at an explanation only caused Daniel to glare at her. "Sorry."
"It's true, Jackson." Cam said. "I just spent several days in an alternate reality while sixteen different Carters, a Martouf and one Zelenka tried to figure out how to send us back."
"Even if I believed you, which I don't, who is she?" Daniel demanded with a finger pointed in Sam's direction. Just then, Teal'c came into view, jogging up the path in his loping Jaffa gait. When he spotted Sam he froze and immediately became guarded as a frown descended on his features. He began approaching slowly, his face a scowling stone mask.
"She's one of the Carters who was pulled in from another reality." Cam explained quickly. Daniel scowled at Sam and lifted an eyebrow, which was all he needed to do to ask the obvious question.
"My reality is lost to the Ori." Sam said softly. She sighed and straightened up, looking at Daniel sadly. "I had nothing to go back to. Earth has fallen by now. Off-world bases picked off one by one. Atlantis destroyed after we couldn't defend it from the Wraith. No allies left either. I had no one to go back to, Daniel. Not you, or Teal'c, or Cameron. So I took the coward's way out." Cam stiffened slightly at her choice of words and looked at her with a gentle glance. She shook her head. Teal'c walked right up to her and scrutinised her for several moments. She just smiled sadly at him.
"She is Colonel Carter, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c intoned with a low growl. "I would swear to it." Daniel grimaced and glared at Cameron.
"She isn't Sam." he growled. Cam shook his head.
"I know."
"You of all people..." the linguist trailed off sullenly as his gaze bored through Cameron. He turned away. Reynolds turned to Teal'c.
"What was the situation at the village, Teal'c?" he asked. The Jaffa turned his gaze from Sam to the Colonel and spoke quickly.
"Majors Evans and Gomez have secured all but the final spire, Colonel Reynolds." he intoned seriously. "I expect them to be ultimately victorious within the next quarter of an hour." Reynolds nodded and turned to Webster.
"Major, remand your men to my command, I will secure the 'gate area." he ordered as Webster nodded to his second who acknowledged and moved towards Reynolds in preparation of receiving further orders. "You will lead Colonel Mitchell and SG-1 in escorting Colonel Carter back to Stargate Command for a full debriefing." Cam nodded and turned to Sam with an encouraging nod while Daniel spared him a last glare before heading for the DHD to dial Earth. Sam touched a hand to Cam's lower back and when he turned to her again he found her looking at him sadly. He shook his head and she sighed and gazed away into the distant sky.
"This is such a beautiful view." she breathed and he turned to follow her gaze. More to hide his reaction than with any desire to see the gas giant hanging in the sky with its obliquely angled rings. "That could be a brown dwarf. A gas giant that couldn't quite muster up enough mass to sustain hydrogen-burning fusion in its core." He nodded, turning to her with a faint smile.
On to Chapter 4