The Ninth Chevron - Chapter 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.
Previously: Ch 1
The Ninth Chevron - Chapter 2
Stargate Command, December 2005
Sam recoiled from the look in Cam's eyes when he came in to her lab. Her eyes widened in fear and her pulse quickened as adrenalin surged through her veins in the classic fight or flight response. She was in for it now. She'd promised, given her word and she'd reneged, but she couldn't just leave! This was too important! There was no way she could go now!
"Cam, I'm really sorry, but I'm just too busy. This data won't wait until tomorrow or I swear I-" She was trying to get through to him, but he didn't even blink, just moved towards her relentlessly, like a man possessed. "Cameron?" She quickly clambered off her chair as he got closer and backed up until she was pressed back against one of her shelves. She yelped as he grabbed her wrist and pulled, turning her around and wrapping his arm around her waist. He began dragging her back out around her table, which she was grasping at desperately, but to no avail, her scrabbling fingers could find no purchase and the soles of her boots were just scuffing uselessly against the clean, smoothly painted concrete floor of her lab. "Cameron Daniel Mitchell, what are you doing?" Again he ignored her, just pulling her along with his hand at her waist, his fingers splayed open against her stomach. His warm fingers. What? She shook her head at that thought and reached down to try to pry his fingers away, but was unable to. "Cam, stop this! Please!" They were out in the hall and airmen were doing their best to scramble out of the way. They could see Lt. Colonel Mitchell was on a mission and if you didn't get out of the way he'd walk right over you. "Someone, help please." she called out and was rather incensed at the tiny little head shakes she was getting in return. Suddenly Cameron stopped and stood stock still, she turned her head in surprise to see General Landry in the corridor looking at them sternly, she came to attention as well. "General Landry, sir, I was in the middle of reviewing a lot of the data we recorded from Khalek in my lab. It's really fascinating actually I-" She stopped abruptly when Landry turned from her to Mitchell and raised his eyebrows.
"Movie night?" he asked.
"Yes, sir." came the ready reply.
"Carry on, Mitchell." Landry began to move away, leaving Sam staring at him agape.
"Yes, sir." Cam's hand grabbed the back of her belt and he started moving again, dragging her backwards down the corridor.
"Traitor!" she yelled at the retreating back of General Landry.
Miami, Florida, October 2008 (alternate timeline)
Sam snuggled against him as they sat on the lower aft deck of the boat they'd chartered for a long weekend. It never really got that cold in Miami and it was still eighty degrees and sunny. He had an arm stretched out over the back of the bench they were sitting on watching the docks, while her fingers played idly with the front of his tank top. He turned his head and kissed the top of hers, just behind her nestled sunglasses. He felt her hand stop momentarily, her fingers pull back from him for just an instant before resuming their playful stroking.
"What's wrong, honey?" he asked, his lips still pressed against her soft blonde hair. He felt her sigh gently and shift a little more into him.
"Do you think we're... do you think Daniel feels like a third wheel around us?" Her voice was soft with concern.
"Baby, Vala figured me out after five minutes tops. And I bet she told Jackson five minutes after that." He felt Sam sniggering against his chest and smiled. "I think he's been expecting it." She lifted her head to look at him with her shining blue eyes. "Besides, when it's you and me, then it's just you and me, but when it's the three of us, it's the three of us. You know that. And before you suggest it, no, I don't think we should encourage Daniel to date while he's here. Vala wouldn't stand for it." She chuckled against him.
"I don't think she's in the right frame of mind to protest against it right at this moment." she offered and he turned his head to watch the marina again.
"I wouldn't bet my Air Force stipend on it." He reached up and pushed his sunglasses back up the bridge of his nose, the collar of his open, short-sleeved shirt flapping in the breeze against his neck. Sam was quiet for a few moments and then started giggling. "What?"
"Well, it's just it wouldn't be the first time a symbiote had fallen for Daniel." She was chuckling openly now and Cam had to search through his encyclopaedic recall through the SG-1 mission files. Not a Goa'uld, since she said symbiote very deliberately, so one of the Tok'ra. It only took a few moments after that to come up with a name.
"Let me guess, Anise of the Tok'ra, came to the SGC back in... 2000 to ask you to test strength enhancing armbands created by the Atonieks, a race that died out before the arrival of the Goa'uld." When he finished his recitation he felt Sam raise her head to look at him again with amazement in her eyes.
"Do you have eidetic recall or something?" she asked and he shrugged smiling.
"I was in that hospital a long time and it was the mission files or Dan Brown and I wasn't gonna read Dan Brown. Especially if I have eidetic recall." he explained. She smiled and lay her head down on his shoulder. "Anyways, I don't think Jackson would stand for it either."
"Hmm, he and Vala have been getting on a lot better recently. They still bicker constantly, but it's almost as if that's how they show their affection for each other." she offered.
"Ever since Odyssey." he said softly and she was quiet, her hand resting against his chest again, her fingers running lazy circles over the fabric of his shirt. "You know, I had a dream a while back," he felt her still the movement of her hand, her breathing also hitched, "I was running down one of the corridors on board, ran past Jackson's quarters just as the doors opened, only to see Vala step out, rearranging her clothes and waving back inside, looking distinctly... post-coital." That set her to sniggering and he relaxed himself. By her reaction he could guess she was also having these strange non-dreams. She sat up and stretched her arms over her head. Her eyes locked on to something in the distance and he followed her gaze. Speak of the Devil. Daniel was taking a pack out of the trunk of a car in the car park on the far side of the marina, before threading his way onto the dock itself. Sam was waving at Daniel from beside him and Daniel waved back, Cam shot him a quick salute and he stood up to step out on to the dock. Something was up. Daniel didn't look happy.
"What's wrong, Daniel?" Sam was standing on deck with her hands on her hips, concern evident on her face. She'd pushed her own sunglasses into place from the top of her head as she stepped out from under the overhang of the top deck. Cam took Daniel's pack and threw it up to Sam who caught it deftly and lay it down inside the cabin. He then helped Daniel board, making sure his prosthetic leg didn't bother him, and untied the mooring line to allow them to cast off, before boarding again himself.
"Damn Navy is what!" muttered Daniel in high dudgeon. "I told you about that briefing request I got from them, right?"
"Yeah, you did." Sam replied and Cam nodded as she helped Daniel climb up onto the top deck and find a seat there under the canopy. She went back to get the hamper and cooler they'd brought, which Cam helped her take up, then he started up the boat and set off for the Atlantic. All the while Daniel was describing his briefing with the Admiral in charge of the Stargate Program.
"Well, they wanted to know more about some of the aliens and artifacts we already know exist on Earth, like Seth and Hathor's sarcophagus and Osiris' canopic jar," as he listed each Sam and Cam looked increasingly horrified about the inexperienced and fledgling Stargate Program taking on full fledged Goa'uld on Earth, "they haven't been found so either Ba'al has been busy on the Q.T. over the years or this timeline just keeps diverging more and more." Neither scenario had Cam enthused. "Oh, and the Telchak device." Cam groaned audibly from the helm and turned towards Daniel who was seated at one of the benches trying to let the sun and breeze calm him down. "Oh, yes! They want to send a SEAL team down to Honduras to 'secure' it." He made an airquotes gesture. "They said if I help brief their team on it and other things then they'll look into lifting the interaction ban on us." The look on his face told Cam that was something Daniel wanted pretty badly, he couldn't disagree.
"Do you think they really ever will, Daniel?" Sam asked from the opposite side where she was sweeping her hair up into a ponytail to keep it contained in the gently increasing breeze.
"They better." He grimaced and even though his eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses they could both see the fire in them.
"How come they're asking you for help and not us?" Cam prodded as he navigated out past a breaker into one of the barrier island channels.
"Well, I'm sure they might ask Sam for some help sometime, but your skillset isn't much use except off-world I think." Daniel offered apologetically.
"Hey, I can kick ass on any planet! Including P2X-3YZ!" he exclaimed vehemently and Sam grinned.
"P2X-3YZ?" Daniel asked confused.
"That's the planetary designation for Earth." explained Sam. Daniel rolled his eyes.
"You military types have to make up designations for everything don't you. Mitchell probably has them for his socks. What would you call those ones your wearing?" Daniel prompted. Cam looked down at his deck shoes for a moment.
"Socks, blue, possibly mismatched." he replied and Sam burst out laughing. "I have a lot of blue socks." Daniel scoffed.
"Anyway, I agreed to help them... provisionally." Daniel got the conversation back on track.
"I do not want the Navy to have access to something that can cause the Zombie Apocalypse!" Cam cried while looking out over the prow, promptly derailing the conversation once more.
"You're exaggerating, Cam, the Zombie Apocalypse? Seriously?" Sam looked at him with a teasing smile, but Cam's face was deathly serious. He turned to Daniel whose own features were as stone.
"She doesn't have one." said Daniel matter-of-factly. To which Cam nodded with a grunt.
"Have one what?" asked Sam looking at each of them in turn.
"A Zombie Apocalypse Survival Plan." Cam intoned and she scoffed at him. Both he and Daniel didn't waver however, remaining steadfastly unsmiling as she stared at them incredulously.
"You can't be serious! A Zombie Apocalypse Survival Plan?" When they didn't react her jaw gaped. "You're serious."
"Sam, the Telchak device is Zombie Apocalypse-in-a-can!" Cam explained. "And you should know better than anyone how bad it can get having fought Kull warriors." At the mention of the Goa'uld super-soldiers Sam blanched. "You think I was just pitching an idea to Martin Lloyd at that meeting? I was trying to get the word out. I've thought long and hard about how to survive the coming of the undead horde."
"You have to be prepared." Daniel stated harshly.
"Crazy prepared." Cam went further. They sailed on in silence for several minutes as Sam's head was bowed in thought.
"You guys are punking me!" she cried and they both laughed, grinning at her. She began to laugh as well but stopped when both Cam's and Daniel's laughter ended simultaneously and they resumed their stonily serious looks.
"Are we?" asked Daniel.
USS Odyssey, above Praxyon, May 2010
"You talked to Thor, the Thor." she asked him incredulously as they walked the corridors of Odyssey towards the Asgard Core room. He nodded and she turned to stare off into the distance with her mouth slightly open. "And you didn't let me talk to him? I hope I kicked your ass for that!" She gave him a glare and he smiled at her.
"Oh, you did. You'll remember it eventually I expect." His smile was infectious and she bumped him with her shoulder as they reached the Core room. "Now I don't know if this will work. It was kind of an accident the first time around and Thor said he didn't know how 'physical tinkering' could have caused it. 'Inadvertent' he said it was." Sam smiled, that did sound like Thor. Daniel, Vala, Teal'c and Colonel Hendricks, the current commander of Odyssey entered behind them and Cam moved around the Core and bent down out of sight.
"I'm having trouble believing the Asgard aren't actually gone." Daniel whispered to her as Vala stuck her head over the console to watch what Cam was doing.
"Glad though, aren't you? I am." she offered, he smiled and nodded as did Teal'c from behind Daniel.
"Indeed, the Asgard are worthy allies." Sam saw the note of relief in his eyes, which he must have been carrying for over fifty years now, just as a loud yelp was heard from Cam's position and he shot up jerking his hand and licking his fingers.
"There it is. Still hurts." Just as he spoke a shape shimmered before her facing towards the console and she gasped at the realism of the hologram. Breathing, a light sheen off the grey skin, the more natural movement of the arms and head as it tilted to the side. It definitely wasn't the hologram she'd seen and used since that trip. That one was stilted in its motion even for an Asgard whose movements could never be described as human.
"Colonel Mitchell, you look younger than the last time we spoke. I take it Colonel Carter's plan to reverse time was a success?" asked the hologram before turning around and seeing her standing there with a stunned expression. "It is good to see you, Colonel Carter, Dr. Jackson, Vala Mal Doran, Teal'c." He glanced at Hendricks beside her. "We have not met. I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, (retired)." Oh, God, he learnt that from Jack. The Asgard nodded his grey head in greeting and blinked his limpid black orbs.
"Uh, a pleasure to meet you, Supreme Commander, I'm Colonel Rafe Hendricks, US Air Force. I'm the commander of Odyssey." said the rather bewildered-looking officer.
"Whoa, whoa, back it up, Thor." Cam interrupted as he came around the console holding his limp right hand with his left. Sam looked at him in surprise until she too registered exactly what it was that Thor had said a little while ago.
"Thor, you remember your last meeting with Cameron?" she asked him. He blinked at her slowly and nodded.
"Of course, Colonel Carter. I remember everything I experience. Oh, I see, the question should not be why I remember our last meeting, but how you do, Colonel Mitchell." He turned back to Cameron and looked him up and down.
"No, I think how either of us remember it is the question." replied Cameron as he clenched and unclenched his right hand, Sam walked over to him and took it in hers, rubbing it gently to get the feeling back into his fingers, he smiled gratefully at her.
"We've all been having... flashbacks I suppose you could call them, despite that timeline not really existing anymore." began Daniel coming around to face the Asgard hologram who turned to look at him. "And now you tell us you remember speaking to Mitchell during that time as well?" The Asgard was quiet for a moment.
"The reason I remember it is fairly straightforward." He tilted his grey head as he regarded each of them before returning to Cam. "You recall that I told you running the simulation of my consciousness is a considerable power drain, which Colonel Carter would require to implement any plan she could devise?"
"Yeah, we had to actually use the Ori energy beam to power the time reversal since after fifty odd years there wasn't enough power available in the ZPM or the neutrino-ion core to power it." Cam replied. The Asgard blinked in clear surprise.
"You spent fifty years under a time dilation field? That is indeed a testament to your skills at power conservation. It should not have been possible for the power core to sustain that field for so long." The hologram was clearly impressed. Sam looked at Cam with a proud smile knowing he had been the most responsible for that. "To also devise a way to use the power contained in an energy weapon blast to power the Core's generators is... very human." The hologram's eyes seemed to lose focus for a moment, Sam couldn't figure out how she could tell that since they were a uniform black colour. A reminder to her of just how much time she'd spent with Asgard in general, and Thor in particular. Also of the accuracy of this simulation. "The reason why I asked you to terminate my simulation to conserve power was not simply to do with the processing elements. It was also the drain associated with sustaining the connection to the Deep Core which is necessary to run the simulation." They all looked confused. Sam turned to face him and tilted her head.
"What kind of connection would you need? What is the Deep Core?" She brought her arms up to wrap around her front.
"Colonel Carter, you know the data storage densities available in our storage core," he pointed towards the Core console behind him, "you are also aware just how much storage is necessary to store even one Asgard consciousness." He was alluding to the time he'd had to store his consciousness in the Biliskner's main computer, realisation dawned on her.
"There's nowhere near enough storage in the Asgard Core to store the consciousnesses of the entire Asgard race." She turned to Cam with a look of wonder. "The Deep Core isn't on board Odyssey, and activating the simulation routines also activated the connection to the Deep Core which must be hard to sustain while the time dilation field was active." She turned back to Thor to see him nodding in agreement. "Where is the Deep Core?"
"In a separate, artificially generated dimension, independent of this space-time continuum, hence unaffected by your time reversal process." Thor stated matter-of-factly. Colonel Hendricks had to sit down at one of the other consoles, he looked to be suffering from a headache. "I believe the reason you are remembering your time in the time dilation field is a result of this connection having been activated." They all glanced at each other and Sam could see how each of them still weren't following.
"We don't quite understand, Thor." offered Daniel as Vala came to stand beside him, pouted and rested her forehead on his shoulder, it seemed she was also getting a headache. "Why would the connection between the Asgard Core and the Deep Core affect us?"
"To call it merely a connection is somewhat misleading. Technically when the Deep Core connection is activated, the Asgard Core generates a field which merges the regular time-space continuum with the artificial dimension in which the Deep Core resides. The field encompasses the entire vessel, hence everyone within it is also in contact with that dimension whilst the connection is active." As Thor spoke everyone turned to face Cameron, who had been the one to first activate the connection. And had done so again just now. He just shrugged apologetically. "It is harmless," explained the Asgard to allay everyone's concern, "but it does create quantum paired bonds between an individual's consciousness and the dimensional medium. Bonds which are used to record changes in the consciousness, even after the field itself is deactivated. This is how we were able to store our consciousnesses originally." Thor glanced down in apology before turning to Sam. "It was our oversight which created those bonds between your teammates and General Landry and the Deep Core. We neglected to deactivate the quantum pair bonding initialisation once we originally imprinted our consciousnesses into the Core. When I had Colonel Mitchell deactivate the connection the last time he also deactivated this initialisation." He turned to Colonel Hendricks as he spoke. "You needn't worry that you or your crew will be similarly connected to the Deep Core, Colonel Hendricks." The Odyssey's commander simply nodded numbly. Sam was beginning to understand what was happening to them, and how they remembered things from that now non-existent timeline.
"Our residual connection to the Deep Core recorded all of our memories," she began, unconsciously moving closer to Cam, Thor nodded, "and they survived past the time reversal field we created." The Asgard nodded once more, blinking slowly.
"Quite so, an unforeseeable series of events to an Asgard, we never considered what effect the combination of the connection, a time dilation field and time reversal would have. We lack the... imagination which humans have in abundance. Some would say we also lack your... curiosity. It is probable you would have foreseen the results, Colonel Carter, had you developed the technology."
"Oh, I don't know about that, Thor." Sam rebutted quickly. "It was Vala who came up with the idea of reversing time, not me." Thor looked over at Vala and blinked slowly.
"Impressive." he complimented as she smiled nervously under his gaze. Daniel stepped forward slightly to regard each of them for a moment, a rather intent look in his eye.
"Fascinating as all this is," he looked at Sam apologetically, and he was right, she was utterly fascinated, "we actually activated you to ask about the nine symbol addresses we found in the Asgard database." Everyone shifted nervously recalling their original purpose in coming, except Teal'c, he was perfectly calm.
"I'm afraid I cannot tell you very much about them, Dr. Jackson. We recovered those addresses from an Ancient outpost, in our original galaxy of Ida, which had been nearly completely destroyed. This was a great deal of time after they left our plane of existence. We were unable to recover anything more than what you have already seen I imagine. Although it was posited the complete list of these addresses could be... sizeable. We did not decide to pursue any investigation of it, due to our lack of curiosity and imagination no doubt." Daniel looked crestfallen. "All I can tell you is that the few 'experimental Stargates', as we dubbed them, to which we attempted to connect, required immense amounts of power to do so and very complex, real-time synchronisation calculations to maintain. It was deemed unnecessarily risky to us as the conditions of each location seemed inhospitable to our kind, especially as we were already at war with the Replicators." Daniel sighed in resignation. Sam felt her shoulders slump in disappointment and Cam gently placed his hand on one of them. She rested her own hand on his, letting her fingers brush along the back of it. Thor looked to each of them in turn. "I should point out once again, the purpose of the Deep Core is to sustain our consciousnesses until such a time as it may be possible for us to be revived by you. We do not ask this of you lightly, it was greatly debated in the High Council, however, we felt if anyone would be able to accomplish this task it would be the Fifth Race. However, as you can imagine, the power requirements of maintaining a connection between this reality and the Deep Core is... non-trivial, and we had not intended for you to even find out about the existence of the Core for many generations, until you were ready to take on the task we have laid at your feet. I understand however, that the interface avatar to the Core I programmed originally may be insufficient. I will endeavour to create one which will not drive Colonel Carter 'buggy,'" he glanced at Cameron, "and which will not 'creep her out' with its near-accuracy." Cam grinned as Sam glanced his way in slight confusion. "It is done, it will not require much more power than it currently does, but should be acceptable." Sam looked at Thor sadly, realising this was likely the last time she would speak to him.
"Thank you, Thor, for everything." she said, trying not to choke up.
"We won't let your people down." Daniel added from beside her.
"Farewell, my friend. It was good to see you again for this short time." rumbled Teal'c, bowing to the hologram.
"I promise to come up with more impressive ideas." Vala smiled before looping her arms around Daniel's and leaning against him, he turned to her and patted one of her hands.
"Sorry, I kinda messed up your plans to surprise us all. I'll say what I said the last time. I hope to see you again sometime in the future." Cam said as he moved to the Core console to deactivate the connection.
"Farewell to all of you." Thor nodded deeply while blinking his large black eyes slowly once more, he looked at Cam and nodded slightly and shimmered away once Cam deactivated the hologram. Cam turned back to them and found Sam pressing her head against his shoulder, gripping the front of his jacket. He placed his hands on her arms and rubbed up and down her sleeves lightly as the rest began shuffling out of the room. Sam felt devastated, she'd had to say good bye to Thor again. It was almost harder this time knowing he was still so close.
"Do you want to check out his replacement avatar?" Cam asked softly, his mouth only inches from her ear. She shook her head vehemently, it wasn't something she was up for right now. She pulled back from him slightly and he let her go with a sad smile.
"I'll be okay, I just need a bit of time." she whispered to him and he nodded, leading her out of the Core room and back to the others.
On to Chapter 3