[SG-1 + Eureka] [Gen] [K] Version 2.0
Title: Version 2.0
Genre: Gen
Length: approx. 1700 words
Rating: Safe
Possible Spoilers: SG-1 10x04 - Insiders
Pairings: clone!Jack/clone!Sam, mention of Jack/Sam
Credits: Thanks to pixie_on_acid and daisycm83 for beta-reading, providing insights and suggestions, and sharing the glee.
Summary: In which we learn where clone!Jack has been, and how clone!SG-1 were created.
A/N: This is the second story in the “SG-1 v2.0” crossover series, but it’s actually stepping back in time from the first. This occurs about a week before Starting Over.
Version 2.0
It had been nearly four years since Jack O’Neill - the Second - last set foot in the SGC, and he hadn’t looked back.
Much.
Sure, he thought about his old life now and again. Sure, he thought about his team, about Sam. But he knew he wasn’t Colonel Jack O’Neill, so he moved on. And on. And on.
In the past four years, he’d moved around quite a bit. He’d tried to embrace the whole ‘high school experience,’ but it didn’t take him long to realize the fundamental problem: he hated teenagers. Physically, he might have been fifteen, but mentally he was pushing fifty. When he saw a gaggle of teenagers, his first instinct wasn’t to join them; it was to keep a watchful eye on them to make sure they weren’t causing trouble.
After giving up on high school, he wasn’t sure what to do. He took some time to think it over on the Air Force’s dollar. But there was only so long he could play video games and drink non-alcoholic beer. Without finishing high school, his chances of becoming an officer again were nil, but that was probably for the best. He needed to make a clean break. But as a sixteen year-old high school dropout, his job options were limited. Eventually, he took a construction job just to have something to do.
Throughout the spring and summer, he was fine. He was outdoors, working hard, building some muscle in the scrawny frame he had yet to get used to - he thought he might be content with that. But as winter set in and work slowed down, he got restless. One night, he packed everything he owned and got on a bus. He was headed for Florida, but he only made it as far as Tennessee. On a stop-over in Memphis, he walked through Graceland and it made him laugh. Nothing had done that for quite a while.
In Memphis, he got a job at the local IMAX. That lasted until his twenty-fifth viewing of Space Station 3-D. When he found himself getting nostalgic for EMUs, he knew he was losing his mind. He decided he needed to be someplace familiar, but with no associations to the SGC.
He headed for Chicago, where he found work in a factory on the North Side. He made friends with a few of the men - they snuck him beers when the crew went out after work - and he thought he might stay awhile. But the problem with Chicago was that it was too close to Minnesota. So many times he thought of going to his cabin, only to realize it wasn’t his cabin, nor did he want to risk running into its proper owner.
After Chicago, it was Vermont - a decision reached while eating pancakes with syrup. Then it was off to Washington, but the dense, damp forests reminded him of being off-world. Nevada, New Mexico, South Carolina… he just kept moving, sometimes only staying long enough for his stipend check from the Air Force to catch up with him. When they came for him, he’d finally made it to Florida, where he did maintenance for a local flight school and took ‘lessons’ just to get in the air again.
Four years, twelve states, and countless jobs after leaving the SGC, there was a major from the Pentagon on his doorstep and a plane waiting at Patrick to take him back to the very place he’d been running from.
&&&&&&&&&&
“Hank. It’s surprisingly good to see you.” Jack shook the general’s hand.
“Jack. It’s just surprising to see you. I feel like I’ve stepped into a time machine. You couldn’t have been but a year or two older when I first met you. I remember when you-” A careful rap on the door interrupted General Landry’s reminiscence. “Ah. That’ll be Walter. They’re ready for you.”
“Who is ready for me? All that Pentagon pencil-pusher would tell me was that I was needed at the SGC.”
Landry stopped mid-step and turned back. “And you actually came?”
Jack shrugged. “My social calendar isn’t exactly packed these days.”
Hank clapped him on the back and grinned wickedly. “Oh, that’s all about to change. C’mon. SG-1 is waiting in the briefing room.”
&&&&&&&&&&
Jack knew as soon as he walked in the room. He was just afraid to believe it. “What the hell is this?” he asked Landry.
“This is SG-1.” Landry gestured for Jack to take a seat at the table. “Version 2.0.”
Jack looked carefully around the table. Just seeing Teal’c was enough to convince him - he looked just like Rya’c, only Rya’c would be older now. Next to Teal’c was a dark-haired young girl who looked terribly bored, two slightly different versions of Daniel, and finally, smiling that unmistakable smile, Carter. “This seems like a whole lot of trouble to go to just to make sure I’ve got some company, Hank.”
“Trust me, Sir,” said one of the Daniels. “It wasn’t his idea.”
Falling immediately back into old routines, Jack turned to Sam for an explanation. “Carter, why are there two Daniels, and why does one have a Southern accent?”
“That one is Cameron Mitchell,” the dark-haired girl answered for Sam, pointing to the Southern Daniel. Turning to the real Daniel, she added, “I told you the resemblance was uncanny.”
Daniel rolled his eyes; the familiar expression helped Jack recognize the differences between the two. “Well, that’s a relief. One Daniel is plenty.”
Jack had never seen a more lascivious grin on a girl when she replied, “I wouldn’t mind having a spare.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And you are?”
Leaning back casually in her chair and tossing her hair over her shoulder, she smiled suggestively. “Vala Maldoran… the new and improved model. Very pleased to meet you.”
“Well, now that we’re all acquainted,” Sam interrupted brusquely, “maybe we should explain what’s going on.” She turned to Jack. “After the defeat of the Goa’uld-”
“Whoa, hold it! The defeat of the Goa’uld?” His entire team being cloned was one thing, but this was downright unbelievable.
Daniel nodded. “You’ve been gone a long time, Jack. A lot has changed.”
“They’ll fill you in on the details later, Jack. Just listen.” General Landry nodded to Sam to continue.
“After the defeat of the Goa’uld, we learned that Baal was hiding out here on Earth. We later found that he had cloning technology and had cloned himself repeatedly. Last year, we managed to capture 20 Baal clones, only to have them escape with sensitive data about the location of a powerful weapon. Fortunately, he still didn’t have all the information he needed to find the device, but he believed that we - that SG-1 - had the missing piece. He managed to capture SG-1 off-world and clone them. He thought if he could clone the team - with a little tweaking to their psychological makeup to make them more susceptible to influence, the same way he made his own clones, so they would follow his lead - that he would stand a better chance of getting the information. And that’s where we come in.”
“But why would he clone you as teenagers?” Jack asked.
“He did not,” Teal’c replied. “SG-1 escaped and destroyed the cloning facility before we were fully grown.”
“And that,” General Landry summarized, “left us with five teenage clones, engineered with lower resistance to interrogation, and heads full of classified information. That’s where you come in.”
“The Air Force has coordinated with the Department of Defense and they’ve agreed to relocate us to Eureka,” Sam explained. “It’s a top-secret residential development in a remote area of the Pacific Northwest, founded in the 1950s by the U.S. government as a safe haven for scientists working on highly classified projects. It’s a secure location in the event that Baal should come after us, and we can be of use in the development of new technology.”
Landry came to the point. “We want you to relocate with them, Jack. Keep an eye on them, keep them safe if Baal shows up. Plus, we thought it was advisable to have at least one person over the age of eighteen in the house!”
“You want me to be their babysitter?” Jack asked incredulously.
“You would also have a job as a consultant on military contracts,” Sam offered, and something in her voice drew Jack’s eyes to her face. Her tone was even, but he would’ve sworn he heard just a hint of desperation.
Jack kept her gaze. “General, I need a little time to think about this.”
“No problem, Jack.” General Landry got up from the table. “You know where the office is.”
Teal’c rose and silently indicated that the others should follow. Cam and Daniel did so without hesitation, then turned back to drag Vala. Sam was frozen under Jack’s stare.
&&&&&&&&&&
“Jack…”
“Carter…” he mocked gently. It felt strange to hear her say his first name.
“I know we’re asking you to give up whatever life you’ve made for yourself out there,” Sam said hesitantly.
“That isn’t asking much.”
She studied his expression and sounded relieved, but still cautious. “A lot has changed in the last four years.”
He was afraid of the answer - whether affirmative or negative - but he couldn’t help but ask. “You and I?” With a shake of his head, he corrected himself. “Him and her?”
Sam nodded. “For nearly two years now, since he was reassigned.”
It was amazing to Jack exactly how much that thought hurt. She had those memories; he didn’t. “Sam… I’m not him.”
“And I’m not her. You and I both know we go back a lot longer than two years.”
He stared at her with that indecipherable blank expression of his, one Sam recognized even on the unfamiliar face. She rose and walked to the other side of the table, taking the chair next to him. “Please don’t make me do this without you.”
The decision was made for him. He’d always been there when she needed him; there was no way he could walk away from her now. “C’mere.”
Sam leaned into him and he pulled her close, her head resting against his shoulder, his lips brushing against her neck. For the first time in four years, something felt right.
Genre: Gen
Length: approx. 1700 words
Rating: Safe
Possible Spoilers: SG-1 10x04 - Insiders
Pairings: clone!Jack/clone!Sam, mention of Jack/Sam
Credits: Thanks to pixie_on_acid and daisycm83 for beta-reading, providing insights and suggestions, and sharing the glee.
Summary: In which we learn where clone!Jack has been, and how clone!SG-1 were created.
A/N: This is the second story in the “SG-1 v2.0” crossover series, but it’s actually stepping back in time from the first. This occurs about a week before Starting Over.
Version 2.0
It had been nearly four years since Jack O’Neill - the Second - last set foot in the SGC, and he hadn’t looked back.
Much.
Sure, he thought about his old life now and again. Sure, he thought about his team, about Sam. But he knew he wasn’t Colonel Jack O’Neill, so he moved on. And on. And on.
In the past four years, he’d moved around quite a bit. He’d tried to embrace the whole ‘high school experience,’ but it didn’t take him long to realize the fundamental problem: he hated teenagers. Physically, he might have been fifteen, but mentally he was pushing fifty. When he saw a gaggle of teenagers, his first instinct wasn’t to join them; it was to keep a watchful eye on them to make sure they weren’t causing trouble.
After giving up on high school, he wasn’t sure what to do. He took some time to think it over on the Air Force’s dollar. But there was only so long he could play video games and drink non-alcoholic beer. Without finishing high school, his chances of becoming an officer again were nil, but that was probably for the best. He needed to make a clean break. But as a sixteen year-old high school dropout, his job options were limited. Eventually, he took a construction job just to have something to do.
Throughout the spring and summer, he was fine. He was outdoors, working hard, building some muscle in the scrawny frame he had yet to get used to - he thought he might be content with that. But as winter set in and work slowed down, he got restless. One night, he packed everything he owned and got on a bus. He was headed for Florida, but he only made it as far as Tennessee. On a stop-over in Memphis, he walked through Graceland and it made him laugh. Nothing had done that for quite a while.
In Memphis, he got a job at the local IMAX. That lasted until his twenty-fifth viewing of Space Station 3-D. When he found himself getting nostalgic for EMUs, he knew he was losing his mind. He decided he needed to be someplace familiar, but with no associations to the SGC.
He headed for Chicago, where he found work in a factory on the North Side. He made friends with a few of the men - they snuck him beers when the crew went out after work - and he thought he might stay awhile. But the problem with Chicago was that it was too close to Minnesota. So many times he thought of going to his cabin, only to realize it wasn’t his cabin, nor did he want to risk running into its proper owner.
After Chicago, it was Vermont - a decision reached while eating pancakes with syrup. Then it was off to Washington, but the dense, damp forests reminded him of being off-world. Nevada, New Mexico, South Carolina… he just kept moving, sometimes only staying long enough for his stipend check from the Air Force to catch up with him. When they came for him, he’d finally made it to Florida, where he did maintenance for a local flight school and took ‘lessons’ just to get in the air again.
Four years, twelve states, and countless jobs after leaving the SGC, there was a major from the Pentagon on his doorstep and a plane waiting at Patrick to take him back to the very place he’d been running from.
&&&&&&&&&&
“Hank. It’s surprisingly good to see you.” Jack shook the general’s hand.
“Jack. It’s just surprising to see you. I feel like I’ve stepped into a time machine. You couldn’t have been but a year or two older when I first met you. I remember when you-” A careful rap on the door interrupted General Landry’s reminiscence. “Ah. That’ll be Walter. They’re ready for you.”
“Who is ready for me? All that Pentagon pencil-pusher would tell me was that I was needed at the SGC.”
Landry stopped mid-step and turned back. “And you actually came?”
Jack shrugged. “My social calendar isn’t exactly packed these days.”
Hank clapped him on the back and grinned wickedly. “Oh, that’s all about to change. C’mon. SG-1 is waiting in the briefing room.”
&&&&&&&&&&
Jack knew as soon as he walked in the room. He was just afraid to believe it. “What the hell is this?” he asked Landry.
“This is SG-1.” Landry gestured for Jack to take a seat at the table. “Version 2.0.”
Jack looked carefully around the table. Just seeing Teal’c was enough to convince him - he looked just like Rya’c, only Rya’c would be older now. Next to Teal’c was a dark-haired young girl who looked terribly bored, two slightly different versions of Daniel, and finally, smiling that unmistakable smile, Carter. “This seems like a whole lot of trouble to go to just to make sure I’ve got some company, Hank.”
“Trust me, Sir,” said one of the Daniels. “It wasn’t his idea.”
Falling immediately back into old routines, Jack turned to Sam for an explanation. “Carter, why are there two Daniels, and why does one have a Southern accent?”
“That one is Cameron Mitchell,” the dark-haired girl answered for Sam, pointing to the Southern Daniel. Turning to the real Daniel, she added, “I told you the resemblance was uncanny.”
Daniel rolled his eyes; the familiar expression helped Jack recognize the differences between the two. “Well, that’s a relief. One Daniel is plenty.”
Jack had never seen a more lascivious grin on a girl when she replied, “I wouldn’t mind having a spare.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And you are?”
Leaning back casually in her chair and tossing her hair over her shoulder, she smiled suggestively. “Vala Maldoran… the new and improved model. Very pleased to meet you.”
“Well, now that we’re all acquainted,” Sam interrupted brusquely, “maybe we should explain what’s going on.” She turned to Jack. “After the defeat of the Goa’uld-”
“Whoa, hold it! The defeat of the Goa’uld?” His entire team being cloned was one thing, but this was downright unbelievable.
Daniel nodded. “You’ve been gone a long time, Jack. A lot has changed.”
“They’ll fill you in on the details later, Jack. Just listen.” General Landry nodded to Sam to continue.
“After the defeat of the Goa’uld, we learned that Baal was hiding out here on Earth. We later found that he had cloning technology and had cloned himself repeatedly. Last year, we managed to capture 20 Baal clones, only to have them escape with sensitive data about the location of a powerful weapon. Fortunately, he still didn’t have all the information he needed to find the device, but he believed that we - that SG-1 - had the missing piece. He managed to capture SG-1 off-world and clone them. He thought if he could clone the team - with a little tweaking to their psychological makeup to make them more susceptible to influence, the same way he made his own clones, so they would follow his lead - that he would stand a better chance of getting the information. And that’s where we come in.”
“But why would he clone you as teenagers?” Jack asked.
“He did not,” Teal’c replied. “SG-1 escaped and destroyed the cloning facility before we were fully grown.”
“And that,” General Landry summarized, “left us with five teenage clones, engineered with lower resistance to interrogation, and heads full of classified information. That’s where you come in.”
“The Air Force has coordinated with the Department of Defense and they’ve agreed to relocate us to Eureka,” Sam explained. “It’s a top-secret residential development in a remote area of the Pacific Northwest, founded in the 1950s by the U.S. government as a safe haven for scientists working on highly classified projects. It’s a secure location in the event that Baal should come after us, and we can be of use in the development of new technology.”
Landry came to the point. “We want you to relocate with them, Jack. Keep an eye on them, keep them safe if Baal shows up. Plus, we thought it was advisable to have at least one person over the age of eighteen in the house!”
“You want me to be their babysitter?” Jack asked incredulously.
“You would also have a job as a consultant on military contracts,” Sam offered, and something in her voice drew Jack’s eyes to her face. Her tone was even, but he would’ve sworn he heard just a hint of desperation.
Jack kept her gaze. “General, I need a little time to think about this.”
“No problem, Jack.” General Landry got up from the table. “You know where the office is.”
Teal’c rose and silently indicated that the others should follow. Cam and Daniel did so without hesitation, then turned back to drag Vala. Sam was frozen under Jack’s stare.
&&&&&&&&&&
“Jack…”
“Carter…” he mocked gently. It felt strange to hear her say his first name.
“I know we’re asking you to give up whatever life you’ve made for yourself out there,” Sam said hesitantly.
“That isn’t asking much.”
She studied his expression and sounded relieved, but still cautious. “A lot has changed in the last four years.”
He was afraid of the answer - whether affirmative or negative - but he couldn’t help but ask. “You and I?” With a shake of his head, he corrected himself. “Him and her?”
Sam nodded. “For nearly two years now, since he was reassigned.”
It was amazing to Jack exactly how much that thought hurt. She had those memories; he didn’t. “Sam… I’m not him.”
“And I’m not her. You and I both know we go back a lot longer than two years.”
He stared at her with that indecipherable blank expression of his, one Sam recognized even on the unfamiliar face. She rose and walked to the other side of the table, taking the chair next to him. “Please don’t make me do this without you.”
The decision was made for him. He’d always been there when she needed him; there was no way he could walk away from her now. “C’mere.”
Sam leaned into him and he pulled her close, her head resting against his shoulder, his lips brushing against her neck. For the first time in four years, something felt right.