<<Previous  | Story Intro | Return to Stories | Next >>

 A Face I've Seen Before

Chapter 3

The additional day off for the put-upon general had worked wonders. Sam had spent the day at the SGC, along with her teammates. She and her team of engineers had worked on the ATVs that were nearly ready for their first trial run. Jack had remained at home, watching hockey most of the day, or so he had reported. Sam had found him color and odor free when she'd arrived home.

A message sent to the Tegerians resulted in another delay, Pallin's pregnant wife had gone into labor. Daniel had sent the Minoans a detailed dossier on both Pallin and Daria, and wasn't willing to risk the diplomatic relations by suddenly introducing a new player. General Hammond decided to wait the full three days agreed upon.

As a result of that decision, SG-1 found themselves going on a 'meet-and-greet' mission. SG-14 had made initial contact with a group of primitive farmers. The interest in the group lay in their stories of a 'sacred cave', from where 'ancient ones' had observed them. Daniel surmised that Goa'uld had used the cave, possibly as a temporary temple, from which to rule the people they'd no doubt brought to the planet. Making certain that none of the Goa'uld 'toys' remained in place, technology that could alter the progression of the people, or worse, was the mission goal.

The team walked through the event horizon, and found themselves standing in the center of a small village. Fields surrounded the village on three sides, a jungle-type forest on the fourth.

"African," Daniel murmured as the team stepped away from the giant artifact.

"Any particular group?" Jack asked quietly.

"It almost looks like a variety of cultures," the archaeologist replied. "The huts are reminiscent of Kenyan tribal shelters, the layout of the village itself resembles Namibian villages. The clothing, however, those are Zimbabwean weaves."

"So some snake just gathered up a few people and dumped them here?"

Daniel glanced over at his friend. "You're surprised?"

Jack shook his head. "No," he sighed. "No, I'm not surprised."

By now the inhabitants had gathered around the group. The faces that ranged from tawny brown to dark umber were smiling, which was a good thing. Obviously SG-14 had left the people with a positive view of the Tau'ri.

"You're on, Danny," Jack whispered.

Major Lewinski, CO of SG-14, had told him that thankfully the tribe spoke Goa'uld fluently. Which made communication with them much easier than it would have been had they retained their original languages. Especially if they had developed a language made of a mish-mash of several African dialects. Daniel stepped forward. "Greetings, and blessings upon you."

The leader of the group, a tall man with nearly a dozen bead necklaces that draped down his bare chest, smiled, his teeth a flash of white against his ebony face. "Greetings, and blessings upon you, traveler."

"We have come as promised," Daniel continued. He glanced down at the notes he'd pulled from his pocket, thankful that Major Lewinski had written such a detailed report. "The Ancient Ones of your stories may have left behind devices detrimental to your people."

"So the man named Loo-enn-ski told us. He said that those who understood these devices would come, and make certain that these things could not hurt my people." The leader said.

"That would be us," Daniel replied. "I'm Daniel Jackson. That man is Jack O'Neill," he said, pointing at the general. "He's our leader. The tall woman is Samantha Carter, she has great knowledge of ancient devices."

"I am Mvemba, leader of the people of Kongo," the tall man said. He glanced at Teal'c and Casey, then back at Daniel.

"He was a slave to the evil gods, until he broke free. He and many of his brethren have joined us in our battle of the evil ones," Daniel explained cautiously. In spite of their sudden nervousness, not one member of SG-1 moved, or even flinched.

"Then he is welcome here," Mvemba said, bowing his head in Teal’c’s direction. The acknowledgement was returned in kind by the Jaffa.

"Thank you," Daniel said, the relief in his voice apparent only to his teammates.

Daniel smiled. At five foot, seven inches, Casey was hardly petite. But her slender build and the gentleness that surrounded her seemed to make her more innocent, and in need of protection. And she was the smallest member of the team. "She is a seer. Her wisdom guides us."

Mvemba nodded solemnly, then turned to Casey. He bowed low. "You are most welcome here, Daughter of the Stars."

Casey inclined her head. "Thank you, Mvemba, leader of the people of Kongo."

He nearly burst with pride. Casey was every bit the diplomat the others claimed him to be. Daniel smiled again, when the Mvemba turned back to him.

"Loo-enn-ski said we must not enter the sacred cave until you have finished," Mvemba continued. "Even though we avoid the sacred cave, it is not expressly forbidden to go there. Loo-enn-ski believed we should change our laws. He believes there is much danger in the cave."

"We'll do our best. If we can't move them, we'll make certain they will never be able to function again," Daniel replied.

The leader frowned, trying to follow the meaning of the words.

"The devices will be broken into pieces," Casey said softly, "none of the pieces will be able to hurt you or your people."

Jack snickered softly, ignored the warning glance Daniel tossed at him. Apparently Danny and his penchant for big words had made the 'translation' necessary. He'd certainly be teasing Space Monkey about this!

Mvemba nodded his understanding. He pointed to the low hills on the other side of the village. "A path leads to the cave, although we have not used it in many years."

"When we return, the cave will once again be safe for you and your people," Daniel promised.

"We will feast and give thanks for your success upon your return," Mvemba swore.

"You honor us," Daniel said.

Believing that the visitors would be engaging in a battle of some sort, Mvemba gave a wide grin. "We will hear the stories of your success when we feast."

Daniel grinned in return. "Hopefully there will be stories worth telling."

Mvemba bowed low once again. "We await your return."

Jack adjusted the cap on his head. "That, campers, is the word to move out," he said, once again proving he understood the Goa'uld language better than he wanted to admit.

With smiles all around, the people of the village parted, allowing the team to follow the beaten path between the huts, toward a lesser used path in the nearby brush. Calls and hoots, the sounds meant as good luck for the travelers, echoed behind the team.

"Any idea what's there?" Sam asked, picking her way over a dozen or so vines that crossed the barely discernable path.

"Major Lewinski said they didn't go to the cave, he didn't think his team had the experience required for identifying or working with Ancient technology. He wasn't sure it was Ancient, he figured more than likely it was Goa'uld, but he didn't want to give the villagers the idea that we couldn't protect them from something he'd already convinced them was dangerous," Daniel explained.

Sam nodded her understanding. "I'd like to take as much back to the SGC as possible. The more we can learn about their technology, the more we can copy it."

"I don't think Mvemba will mind if we take anything," Daniel allowed.

"He seemed damned anxious to get rid of it," Jack remarked.

"Probably because three young people from the village disappeared about fifteen years ago," Daniel replied. "One of the older villagers told Major Lewinski that the three were seen heading toward the cave. When they didn’t return after several days, families and friends began searching for them. Footprints led into the cave, but there was no sign of them anywhere. According to the major's report, the parents of the missing teens went just inside the cave. Apparently they didn’t stay long enough, or go in deep enough to find anything. The kids weren’t there, so they high-tailed it back out. The people had always avoided the cave, something about it being ‘forbidden’, and since those disappearances, they avoid the entire area."

"So, these kids were just curious?" Jack asked, holding a large branch from a huge bush so that the team could move past it.

"Seems so. That they were lost just added to the fear of the cave, and sterner warnings were given to stay away from the cave were issued," Daniel said. He waited until Teal'c had caught up with him before falling into step behind Casey and Sam. The Jaffa eased ahead of the women, taking point.

"Hope it's not far," Jack said, fighting yet another large fern, trying to keep the leaves from slapping him in the face, holding them so that they wouldn’t hit Sam, who was directly behind him. The sun had been lower on the horizon when they’d arrived. Now the temperature was rising noticeably.

They could see the opening long before they cleared the jungle-like terrain around them. The breaks in the foliage offered glimpses of a rather large hole in the side of the hill. It was another hour before they reached the lower foothills.

Teal'c and Jack led the way into the cavern, the scope lights on their P90's lighting the way. Sam gasped out loud when a large black console took shape in the wavering light. She approached slowly, reached out to touch the smooth surface. Immediately, the console reacted. Lights began to flicker all across the panels that she could see. A soft whirring noise filled the air. Half a dozen light fixtures, hanging from a metal frame attached to the stone ceiling of the cavern, began to flicker as well, flashing brightly, then settling into a comfortable glow.

"Carter!" Jack whispered fiercely, his agitation as visible in his eyes as much as it was in his sudden, jerky movements. "Damn it!"

Casey cocked her head sideways, then grinned. "Relax, boss. Not sensing any trouble here."

"Yeah? Then tell me why the little hairs on the back of my neck are standing up," Jack snapped.

Her smile became a frown. "No trouble here…but…" Casey closed her eyes, trying to make sense of the images she was seeing. Two caverns, identical in every way. But different…very, very different.

"Hey, check these out," Daniel said quietly, motioning to four posts set off to one side of the cavern. They stood as if at the corners of a square, equal distance apart, about ten feet, he estimated. There were odd markings at the top of each of the posts…no, pillars, his mind corrected him. Each was one foot square, about eight feet tall, and had half a dozen markings on each side, only inches from the top. The markings were different for each side, but corresponded identically to the other pillars, he noted.

"Stay away from them," Jack growled.

Sam was preoccupied by the console, her attention riveted by what she was certain was a steady flow of information across each screen. "Daniel, can you read any of this?"

The archaeologist hurried to his teammate's side. "That's Ancient. Or at least a variant. Give me a couple of minutes."

Sam nodded, already bringing her camera up to take photographs of the console.

"Recognize anything, Teal'c?" Jack asked.

"I do not," the Jaffa replied. He twisted his head, looking back over his shoulder toward the entrance. The distinct sound of rustling leaves could be heard from where they stood. "I believe we have been followed."

Jack heaved a sigh. "Okay, stand guard, T-man. I don't think any of those villagers would be willing to take you on."

With a regal nod of understanding, Teal'c made his way back through the dark tunnel to the entrance. When there were Ancient devices in the vicinity, allowing those with no training or understanding near those machines most usually ended in tragedy. He stood just inside the large opening, feet spread shoulder-distance apart, his staff weapon at the ready.

"That's interesting," Daniel murmured.

"What?" Sam asked.

"These symbols. They're almost like the symbols on the Stargate and DHDs, but more…defined."

Sam bent closer to Daniel to examine the screen he was looking at. "You're right. That…that could be the twenty-fifth glyph"

"Here's the twenty-first. And the nineteenth," Daniel pointed to the corresponding symbols.

"What are these?" Sam asked, pointing to a separate section of the screen. The symbols there were totally different.

"Looks like Ancient. Of a sort," Daniel replied. He glanced up, noting that Jack and Casey were examining the four posts. And the top of the posts…"Jack, tell me what the symbol on the pillar beside you looks like."

"Huh? What?" Jack asked, looking over his shoulder at the archaeologist.

"Post. Right in front of you. Describe the symbol."

"Squiggly lines."

"Small squiggles or large?"

"Uh…small?"

"How many lines?"

"Four."

"Okay, move to your left. Tell me what's on that side?"

"Lines…sorta like blocks. Four lines of them."

"Wide or narrow?"

"Wide."

"Okay, next side?"

Sam's attention was caught by the symbols that were appearing on the second screen. "Daniel, look!"

In the center of the screen, sixteen 'sets' of symbols, four lines each, began to flash. Daniel dared to touch the first line. Nothing happened. Nothing happened when he touched the second line either. "Okay, tell me if there's a post there with a set of triangular 'squiggles'. There are only five of the shapes visible."

"Right here," Casey called out, standing near one of the posts.

"Describe the others on that post," Daniel instructed.

Casey did so. When the excited archaeologist called out the next set, Jack reported the markings on the third pillar. Daniel confirmed that what he was seeing on the screen were indeed the markings on the pillars.

Sam was comparing the symbols to those that resembled the Stargate glyphs. There were only sixteen symbols. And seemed to work only in specific groups of four. She reached out and touched one of the symbols. It glowed, brighter than the symbols beside it. She chose another symbol, from one of the other sets. Again, when she touched it, the symbol began to glow. She continued until none of the symbols would light. She watched, fascinated, as the symbols that had remained lit slid to one side of the screen, arranging themselves in a column in the exact order in which she'd touched them. She glanced at Daniel. His eyes were shining. Just like they always did when he'd found the answer to a puzzle.

Whatever they had discovered, Daniel was certain that it was a portal of some sort, using a 'system' of symbols, similar to the Stargate. Could this have been what the Ancients used before they first constructed the Stargates? But how can those posts create a stable wormhole? "Say that again," Daniel said, barely able to contain his excitement.

Jack sighed heavily. "Okay, there's a square squiggle, you know, the lines make boxes, sort of."

"Okay."

"On the next side is one that is all curly-cues, really kinda pretty…" he paused, watching Sam reach for something on the control panel. He opened his mouth, determined to issue an order...

A flash of white light filled the cavern, temporarily blinding those within the rough stone walls.

Before Jack could shout out 'don't touch it', the world went completely white, and he felt as if he were being zapped by a zat gun, only not quite as painful. Jack felt the tingle of electricity move from the top of his head to the leather heels of his boots.

Once Casey could see again, she reached out and grabbed the first thing she could find to steady herself…the world was still spinning around her. That thing just happened to be Jack's pack. She shook her head slightly. "What a rush," she muttered, willing her head to stop spinning.

Whatever had happened, it had knocked the power out, he noticed, switching on the light on his P90. He swung it around to where the soft voice came from. Radar was still looking a bit stunned. "Are you okay?"

"I think so."

"What happened?"

One blonde eyebrow cocked incredulously. "Like I have a clue?"

"I keep telling those two to stop touching rocks they don't know anything about-"

"It wasn't a 'rock'. It was a console. Build by the Ancients, I presume."

"Don't be a smartass. You know what I mean," Jack growled. "Sam? Daniel? What the hell did you do?"

The spinning had finally stopped. However, the background hum she always heard had changed. "Um…Jack?"

The general was busy looking around. The cavern was exactly the same as it had been before he'd been lit up with a few thousand volts…except it was now pitch black. And Sam and Daniel…and Teal'c, were conspicuously missing. Probably hiding, the cowards. I'm so gonna kick their asses! He shook a still tingling hand. "What?"

"Um…we aren't where we were," Casey said softly.

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. Don't even tell me that. I don't want to hear it," Jack protested. He focused his light beam just to the side of the slender blonde, taking note of the wide, green eyes. "Not the same hum?"

She shook her head slowly from side to side. "If it's any consolation, I don't sense us getting into any…trouble. There's something…" she paused, frowned deeply. "It's weird, I keep seeing the same words…"

"Which are?" Jack asked, with more patience than he felt.

"The same, but different."

"That's really helpful."

Casey was every bit as disconcerted at their predicament as Jack was. Possibly more, Jack did have, after all, five years more experience with being bounced around in the universe. His mission reports told of being in the ‘wrong reality’ more than once. "I don't get every detail spelled out for me," she replied, a bit testily.

And that bothers the hell out of you on a daily basis, doesn’t it, Radar? Jack thought. He couldn't comprehend the weight of the gift the young seer dealt with. He could comprehend the guilt she carried around because of it – because he watched her struggle with it. Daniel often told him about the nightmares the young seer endured, every time she believed she’d ‘failed’. He reached out with one arm, and pulled her close to his side. "You get enough."

"It's just…whatever happens feels…weird." She shook her head again, and then looked up into curious brown eyes. "That's it. Just weird. The same, but different."

"Weird I can handle. We'll figure the other out soon enough, I suppose."

"I wonder what Daniel and Sam are doing?" she said softly.

"Trying to figure out what they did so they can undo it," Jack said immediately. "They have enough experience at doing that. Shouldn't take them long."

Casey gave an unladylike snort at the general’s observation, then stepped away from the pillars, toward the opening of the cavern. Which wasn't really open. It was covered, although she could see sunlight through the leaves of the vines that grew over the narrow entrance. "Nobody's been here for awhile."

"So it would seem," Jack replied. He reached out to touch the console. It had come to life when Carter had touched it…Just as it had in the other cavern, lights began to flicker on the console, as well as overhead. "That's a good sign," he sighed.

"Yep. If that end works, and this end works, then they should be able to get us back."

Jack motioned toward the pillars. "Okay, where were we standing?" He stopped abruptly, causing Casey to stumble into his back. "Remind me again why we were standing in the middle of something obviously dangerous?"

"It wasn't obviously dangerous," Casey argued.

"Sure it was. It was ten feet from an Ancient device."

"And just what is 'it', besides four equally placed pillars, with cool squiggles on the top?" the seer demanded to know.

"Without a doubt it's a new version of a quantum mirror. Or an old version of the quantum mirror. Just without the mirror part."

"Or, this could be the first type of machine the Ancients built for traveling to other realities, and they built the mirror and perfected it so they could see where they were going before they got there," Casey offered cheekily.

"This is not answering my question," Jack growled.

"We were comparing the squiggles with what Daniel had found on one of the panels of the console," the young blonde sighed.

"And who said he needed to know what was on all four sides, thus putting us in the middle of that thing?"

"I'm not having this discussion with you," Casey sighed. "Daniel had no idea what was going to happen, and Sam was tinkering with the console at the same time, although I doubt she had a clue that anything was going to happen-"

"Which is exactly why they shouldn't have been touching anything!" Jack declared.

"If no one on any team ever touched anything on any mission, the discoveries made never would have happened, and no doubt you'd be dead and I'd be a Goa'uld slave right now, so I'm pretty damned glad that they were trying to figure out what the damned thing was even if it did zap our asses somewhere else!" Casey retorted.

Jack glanced over at his shoulder. Green eyes were bright with indignation. Never should have dissed Daniel, he thought, giving a silent chuckle. "No doubt," he admitted easily.

They stood within the square marked by the pillars. After a few minutes, they exchanged worried glances.

"So, how long do we wait?"

Jack stepped forward, eying the vine-covered entrance. "What if we leave a note here. Think it would go back when they figure it out?"

Casey shrugged. "I would think so. We could wrap it around a big rock or something, to make sure it doesn't get blown away."

"Good thinking."

"You want to know what's out there," the seer said, a smile tugging on her lips.

"Well, if we're gonna be here awhile waiting on the Brains to figure out what they did wrong, having an idea what's out there could be to our advantage. Particularly if it's going to take them a day or so," Jack said.

"It won't take them that long," Casey said confidently.

"Probably not." Jack pulled his hunting knife from the sheath on his belt. "Let's see if this will cut those vines."

"Uh, how about a note first? Just in case they figure it out in the next ten minutes or so?"

Jack grinned from ear to ear. "Right."

She pulled her notebook from her pack and tore a sheet free, while Jack scoured the cavern for a substantial sized rock. "Let's see, how about I just put, out exploring, back in about an hour, and then the time?"

"Works for me."

With a nod, Casey wrote out the short note:

"Daniel, We’re okay, all parts in place and working. Jack wants to go exploring, so we went to see what’s outside the cavern. Be back in about an hour. 2:36 by my watch. Love, Casey."

"This should do." Jack put the rock in the very center of the 'square'. He watched with unmasked amusement as Casey duct-taped the note to the rock, making certain that the message was plainly visible.

"Okay, boss. Let's explore."

Jack pulled at the vines, tugging until the cut edges broke free. He hacked a few more times, then pulled those pieces loose as well, tossing all of them onto the floor beside the uneven stone wall of the cavern. "There. We can get through, but there's not an obvious hole."

"From this side. It could be a glaring opening on the other side," Casey pointed out.

"Well, we'll just tuck these in to hide the hole if that's the case," Jack said.

The young seer nodded. Making certain that no one knew from where she and Jack had suddenly appeared could well save their lives. Or at least keep curious, innocent people out of harms way. Whichever was good enough for her.

"This is all Daniel's fault," Jack grumbled.

"It is not! Sam is just as guilty," Casey snapped. "She was messing around with that console. Daniel was just looking at the symbols."

"Okay, it's all Sam and Daniel's fault," Jack cheerfully conceded.

Casey heaved a sigh. "They didn't do it on purpose."

"Duly noted."

"And, you know, there could be a reason for us being here."

Brown eyes immediately focused on the seer. "Anything to tell me, Radar?"

Whenever he asked that, Jack was asking for any information she might have 'seen'. She shook her head and tossed her braid back over her shoulder. "Nothing…well, just that whole 'the same but different' thing. And it's going to be-"

"Weird," Jack finished. "Gotcha." He poked his head out of the opening he'd made. Guessing by the location of the sun, and assuming that this sun rose in the east and sat in the west, it was well into the afternoon.

Casey followed as Jack carefully eased his way through the vines. She glanced over her shoulder. "Think maybe we should close the door, just in case?"

The opening wasn't obvious, but it was noticeable, if one looked at the vines carefully enough. "Probably wouldn't hurt. I'll keep watch, you grab the vines."

With a nod, she ducked back into the cavern, letting her P90 swing free at her side, and gathered the stack of vines into her arms. It only took a few minutes to have the cut vines woven with their still whole kin.

"Hopefully they won't wilt too fast," Jack muttered.

"We're just going to take a quick look around. We'll be back in an hour, remember?"

The general chuckled. "I love your optimism."

"Don't piss in my Wheaties," Casey warned her commanding officer and friend. "One hour."

"Right. One hour."

She made a show of examining her watch. "One hour," she repeated.

With a nod of understanding, Jack bit back a grin, and turned to locate a path away from the cavern. In the other reality, there had been a road…in that direction. His P90 was up and ready, should danger decide to appear. With their backs to the cave entrance, neither of them noticed the flash of light.

Daniel lowered his hand, which had flown up to automatically shield his eyes when the cavern had been flooded by bright light. "Casey? Jack?"

Sam's eyes moved hurriedly from one side of the cavern to the other. She couldn't see either her husband or her best friend anywhere. And there wasn't anywhere else for them to be…She looked down at the console. "Daniel, what does this say?"

Blue eyes glanced down at the black glass, behind which red letters flashed repeatedly. Then stopped. "Process complete."

"What process?" Sam asked hoarsely.

"I…" The importance of what the machine had told them smacked him in the face like a fist. He staggered back a step. It was one thing to theorize that the posts and the console somehow worked together like a Stargate and DHD. It was a completely different kettle of fish to be looking at the empty space where Jack and Casey had been standing only a moment before. "I have no idea," he whispered.

"We'd better find out, and fast," Sam replied, her voice breaking slightly. She took a deep breath. "I was touching the symbols…they lit up…well, six of them lit up. Then they lined up here," she said, pointing to the screen. "In the order I'd touched them, top to bottom. I…" she stopped, blushed slightly. "I’d already lined up four of the ‘squiggles’ symbols – here."

"Okay, we're looking at what seems to be coordinates," Daniel said. He draped his arm around Sam’s shoulders, the action meant to comfort as well as allow him to see the panel fully. "This console is like a DHD. The symbols coordinate with the posts. And, it seems that the…process…also uses actual Stargate glyphs."

"But only six, not seven. So it wasn't like a Stargate address," Sam mused.

"No, and it didn't appear to be like a GPS location…more like a destination description." His eyes flew toward the console, hoping against hope that the symbols still flashing in a column were the ones Sam had touched. He grabbed the camera from his pack and began to take video of the console. He cursed slightly when he checked the replay, the details of the screens just wasn’t crisp enough. Praying that the symbols would continue to flash, he copied them down in his notebook. He turned back to the screen he'd been looking at. Jack and Casey had been describing the markings on the top of each pillar, especially those that faced the 'inside' of the square. There was something familiar about them… There were three distinct Ancient alphabets. Each one used for a specific purpose. The ‘main’ alphabet no doubt mimicked their spoken language, and was used for almost everything. The second alphabet seemed to be used only for scientific work. The third, however, only appeared on the Stargate and the Ancient device. And looked exactly like… "Oh, shit!"

"Daniel?"

"Reality. They're in a different reality," he whispered hoarsely.

"How do we find them?" Sam asked. When the screen she'd been experimenting on went blank, she tapped it frantically.

"I'm not sure," Daniel mumbled. He frowned, trying to find anything in his memory that would help…other than the symbols that had been flashing on the screen in front of him. He almost absently traced the symbols he’d copied, carefully drawing and filling out each one. Whatever Sam had done, it had triggered a 'process'. So, they had to figure out how to reverse the process. It certainly hadn't been easy to reset that machine that…what had been his name – Malikai, that was it – the machine that had screwed up most of the galaxy and forced them into an almost never-ending loop. Malikai had set the machine in a totally different way than what it had been to 'undo' the time loop. "I'm missing something," he muttered beneath his breath.

Sam snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Uh, Daniel?"

"I know I've seen something…read something," Daniel said, still frowning. "Ancient machine! There was a machine on Abydos-" he broke off, wondering if perhaps the device was still sitting in a temple on the planet in this reality.

"Huh? Abydos?" Sam was frowning now as well.

"Daniel…Annika's Daniel, told me about it. He gave a rundown of the missions they'd been on. One mission, well, actually it wasn't a mission, though I guess it must have started out as one-"

"You're rambling," Sam said, poking his shoulder lightly.

"What? Oh, sorry. Annika and her Daniel got tossed sideways into a parallel reality. Met up with the Daniel and Casey we just happened to have met."

Sam's eyes went wide. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, what are the odds?" Daniel asked, smiling weakly. "There was a machine, he described it as being identical to the one we saw when we dealt with Malikai."

"The time loop," Sam nodded.

"Right. I'm not sure…but I think…I think Malikai set the machine in reverse from what it had been. I didn't…don't…know enough about the thing to be certain that's what he did. But, that's what Daniel...and the other Daniel…had to do in order to return to their own reality. They had to find the 'origin' key, which was apparently easy enough to do, and then just set everything in reverse of what it had been."

Sam's frown deepened. "So, we just put the symbols in backwards?"

"Should be easy enough to do."

"You're right. Let's see, I had this lined up…" Sam murmured. It took longer than she had hoped, several of the symbols didn't want to lock into place on the first try. Why couldn't it have been temperamental the first time around? I'd have left it alone if it had, she grumbled mentally. When the symbols on the console were the reverse of what she had been looking at, she looked expectantly at Daniel.

"Okay, I'd just confirmed that this matched that column," he said quietly.

"That's when I tried to start a new line of symbols," the astrophysicist said. She reached out and touched the console. Once again the cavern was flooded with bright light.

"Shit!" Daniel swore, when Casey and Jack failed to materialize.

Sam nibbled her lip, trying to force the panic she was feeling from being able to take complete control. "Okay, what if we need the symbols to be in the same order, but the address backwards?"

Daniel nodded. "Good idea. Let’s try it."

Once again the cavern was filled with a bright flash of light. And a second time, the two missing team members failed to reappear.

"It can’t be this difficult," Daniel grumbled. His heart was pounding against his ribs. Was Casey all right? Had she been transported to a similar cavern? Was it abandoned as well or had she and Jack appeared in a Goa’uld controlled world? Be safe, Angel, he thought desperately. I’m gonna find you, I promise!

Just as panicked, and just as concerned about Jack as Daniel was for Casey, Sam took a deep breath. "Okay, what if we just need to change the ‘direction’? We need the same symbols, but rather than completely backwards, we just need to change the origination point and the destination?"

"That would only affect the ‘dialing’ symbols, right?" Daniel asked, studying his notebook.

"I would think so," Sam nodded. "Let’s try this. Just change the first and the last symbols…like this." She shifted the top ‘gate symbol to the bottom of the list, and the bottom symbol to the top."

"Okay, here goes," Daniel said, touching the panel where the word ‘proceed’ had begun flashing. Moaned softly when he lowered his arm, tossed up to protect his eyes from the flash.

Sam bit back what could have been a sob. Then noticed the rock on the floor. "Wait a minute. Looks like they left a note."

Daniel strode forward, yanked the piece of paper from the rock. It was a note, written on a page from his wife’s journal. The words on the page had him grinding his teeth with frustration. He tossed the stone toward the side of the cavern. "Just friggin' great. They couldn't wait a few minutes for us to figure this out. They had to go tearing out to 'explore'."

There was no doubt that Daniel was blaming Jack for the entire problem, Sam thought, biting her lip to keep from laughing out loud. And somewhere, Jack was grumping about Daniel and his penchant for 'touching rocks he should leave alone'. "We know they're all right. We know how to get to them. If there’s a device like this on that side, we know how to get back."

The archaeologist crumpled the note, and tossed it in the same direction as the stone. Then gave a loud sigh, went to pick it up, and stuck it in his pocket. Leaving a site, any site, with trash lying around was absolutely abhorrent to him.

Sam glanced over her shoulder. The Jaffa was still standing guard near the entrance of the cavern. "Teal'c? Go back to the 'gate. Ask General Hammond to send Doctor Lee and Doctor Coombs through. I want this cavern photographed and this equipment analyzed." She gave the order easily, sliding into her role as second-in-command with practiced ease.

"Sam?" Daniel raised an eyebrow quizzically.

"We're going to have to go after them. We don't know what could have happened to them on the other side."

"Okay. But-"

"I don't know for certain that there will be anything like that," she nodded at the console, "on the other side. If there is, no problem. But…before we leave, we show Bill and Simon exactly what to do to 'undo' the process. And we're all going to have to be standing in a square somewhere that matches that," Sam explained, pointing at the pillars.

"Okay, makes sense," Daniel nodded, expelling the breath of air he hadn't even realized he was holding.

Teal'c walked closer to the two, looked around suspiciously. "Where are O'Neill and Casey Jackson?"

"Another reality, we think," Daniel explained. "And we're going to go after them."

"But we need someone here to make certain we get back," Sam added. "If we can’t do it on our own."

"Might not hurt to have another team with them," Daniel suggested. "We don't need any of those people in the village to get upset and storm the place, if they think we can't take care of the problem and get rid of the Ancient devices."

"Good idea," Sam nodded. "Ask for any available team, and Doctor Lee and Doctor Coombs."

Teal'c nodded. "I shall return within the hour."

Daniel nodded at the console. "Wanna see what else we can learn about this thing while he's gone?"

Sam smiled. "Good idea."

He had barely turned to face the panel when the coordinates flashed once, then went dark. "Damn!"

"You got everything, right?" Sam asked nervously. She knew for certain she'd not be able to replicate the line of symbols without Daniel's input.

"Yep."

"You're sure?"

"Positive. Casey's out there, I'm not about to screw this up," he said gently.

Sam gave a weak smile. "Right. She'd be the first to say something about that amazing brain of yours."

He could feel his cheeks heat up. "Yeah, well, whatever," he mumbled, shrugging slightly.

"Okay, let's take another look at this panel," Sam said, pointing to one in the middle of the console.

"Does that look different to you?" Daniel asked, frowning slightly.

"To be honest, the symbols all look mostly the same to me," Sam admitted. "What does it say?"

"Something about new data for…hmm…this word is reality…this is-" Daniel broke off, pushed his glasses up. "Apparently the Ancients were familiar with hopping realities. This looks like a numerical identification number."

"So they could return to whatever reality they wanted, whenever they wanted?" Sam asked, her eyes going wide.

"Looks like. Let me write this number down. I think it's where Jack and Casey are."

"What new data would be entered?"

"I have no idea," Daniel replied.

"Well, we already know that whatever reality we go to, we do change it, just by being there."

"Let's hope that Jack doesn't decide to change too much," Daniel said dryly.

"Or Casey," Sam added, nudging her friend companionably.

"Especially Casey," Daniel agreed, grinning broadly.

<<Previous  | Story Intro | Return to Stories | Next >>