THE WAY… SERIES

 

BOOK ONE

 

Part III:

 

THE WAY THE JOURNEY GOES

 

Disclaimer: Stargate: SG-1 does not belong to me.  This was written in pure fun.  No money is being made.

 

Summary:  This wasn't home anymore, it wasn't a sanctuary. It was hostile territory.

 

---

“Well,” Baal said as he peered into the open, courtyard like area they’d stumbled upon after wandering aimlessly for several hours, “this doesn’t bode well.”

 

Carter walked in and headed for the fountain that had clear, clean water running through it.  Along the sides sat baskets of fruit, nuts, and other food items.  She picked one up and idly tossed it into the air.  “You think it’s safe?”

 

“There would be little point in providing poisoned foodstuffs,” Teal’c said as he walked up beside her.  “If the creators of this maze wished for people in it to perish, they would not provide food at all.”

 

“Hm,” Carter hummed as she leaded against the edge of the fountain.  “Or maybe they just want to drag it out,” she said.

 

Baal dribbled his fingers in the water and then scooped up a mouthful.  He wiped his mouth and then blinked at the look Carter was giving him  “What?  If there’s something wrong with it, it likely won’t kill me.  Better we find out now,” he said.

 

Carter tossed him the fruit.  “You can test that too, then,” she said.

 

Teal’c was poking around in the nuts and, after finding one to his liking, cracked the shell in his fist.  “Why can we not simply engage the remote again?”

 

Carter sighed and leaned back on her hands.  “I need to do some calculations.  The resonance of the rift will be different depending on changes in our time and space.”

 

“But first we have to know where and when we are,” Baal chimed in as he licked fruit juice off his lip.  “Which means finding someone who knows…”

 

“Or finding the equipment that will tell me,” Carter said.

 

“And you did not bring this equipment?”

 

“I never had it,” Carter said.  “Baal told us when we were, and I used relative star positions to figure out where.”

 

They fell into silence as they all mulled that over.  It was Carter who got up first and wandered over to the nearest shrub.  She tilted her head, studying it from various angles, and then stepped back.

 

“Maybe we can shoot out,” she said.

 

“I doubt it’s that easy,” Baal said as he wiped his hands off and walked up behind her.

 

“Why not?”

 

“What would be the point if everyone could use their weapons to get out?”

 

Carter turned to look at him, “Maybe no one’s allowed weapons.  We didn’t come in through the front door, Baal, we fell out of the sky.”

 

“I believe it is worth attempting,” Teal’c said as he abandoned the nuts and joined them.

 

“Uh-huh,” Baal muttered, “and when we run into whoever built it and they’re pissed because we destroyed it?”

 

Carter was fingering her gun, her mind clearly made up.  She shrugged.  “We ask for forgiveness.  It’s just a maze,” she said.  “I’d rather do that than spend days wandering around in here.”

 

“Who says it’ll be days?”

 

Teal’c glanced back at the food.  “The provision of food makes it unlikely this is a maze that is easily escaped,” he said.

 

Baal sighed and crossed his arms.  “Fine, whatever,” he said.  He took a step back as Carter drew her gun.  “No wonder you people always got into trouble,” he mumbled under his breath.

 

Carter paused in choosing her target and threw a look at him over her shoulder.  She grinned.  “Welcome to our lives,” she said and then fired at the bush.

 

Teal’c approached the sizable hole first and stepped through then held his hand out for Carter.  Baal just barely squeezed through before the branches raced together, sharp thorns sprouting from the stems.

 

Carter looked around to see that all the other shrubs in the vicinity were growing thorns as well.  “Huh,” she said.

 

“Indeed,” Teal’c said as he studied one of the bushes.  “They appear to be considerably thicker as well.”

 

“Clearly they didn’t appreciate that,” Baal said, a distinct ‘told you so’ tone to his voice.

 

Carter fired a few shots into the next bush just to be sure.  Its branches didn’t even shake.  “It was worth a try,” she said and then turned to Baal.  “What’s your suggestion, genius?”

 

Baal pursed his lips, nibbling slightly on his goatee, and looked up and down the path they were on.  “The old fashioned way,” he said.  He waved his arms in a grand gesture towards his left.  “After you.”

 

Carter smacked his shoulder as she passed.  He followed with a chuckle.

 

---

Teal’c, predictably enough, heard it first.  He stopped, his head cocked in that familiar listening stance he had.  Carter strained her ears and finally caught the barest snatch of something.

 

“That sounds like…”

 

“Voices,” Teal’c said.

 

“Arguing voices,” Baal added.  “That way,” he pointed to their right and took the lead.

 

Baal held out his arm when he reached the entrance to another courtyard.  He glanced at Carter and then back at Teal’c, his lips quirked in amusement.

 

“This is all your fault!” One man yelled, his back turned to the entrance the trio were standing in.

 

“My fault?”

 

“Yes!  You’re the one who went wandering off after I told you to stay put!”

 

“I don’t take orders from you, sir,” the second man snarled back.

 

“You do today!

 

“What does it matter?  These people had it in for us from the start,” the second man said.

 

“Gee, I wonder why,” the first man muttered and turned his back, clearly done with the argument.  He froze mid-turn as his eyes landed on Baal, Carter, and Teal’c.  “Uh…”

 

The surprised exclamation captured the second man’s attention.  He looked up and twisted his head to see what was going on.  “Oh, that’s just brilliant, sir.”

 

“Shut up!” He hissed and then turned back to the trio.  He tried to take a step towards them but stumbled, apparently forgetting about the short chain attached to his right ankle that was anchored to a pole sunk deep into the ground.

 

Baal finally started laughing.  He found the one man chained to a post amusing enough.  But the person he’d been arguing with was trapped in a narrow path by two barred gates that had apparently come out of the ground.  The thick disdain running between the two tickled Baal’s sense of humour even more.

 

Carter felt her lips twitch in amusement when Baal started laughing.  She knew from experience that it wasn’t funny for the two men but… she was on the outside this time.

 

The man chained to the post bore their fun at his expense with dignity.  Once they’d wound down he gestured to the chain and, with a pathetic look on his face, asked. “Can you please do something about this?”

 

Carter entered the courtyard first and looked around.  There wasn’t anything or anyone else in sight.  She turned an appraising eye back to his face.  While she could sympathize with his plight, she wasn’t about to release someone she knew nothing about.  He could be a crazy murderer for all they knew, and not the kind of person they wanted to be running around in this maze with.

 

“Who are you?” She asked.

 

“Who are you?” The second man shot back.

 

“I said, shut it, Greene!” He yelled and then turned to face Carter.  “Sorry.  I’m Major John Dalton.”

 

Carter’s eyebrow edged up.  “Major?”

 

Dalton nodded, suddenly hesitant.  “Yes.  Is that… a problem?”

 

Teal’c was peering over Carter’s shoulder, assessing this man.  He was dressed in fairly non-descript clothes, with no weapons or adornments to signify his origin.

 

“Where are you from?” Baal asked as he crouched to examine the chain.

 

“Well,” Dalton hedged, now clearly uncomfortable with the conversation.  “Is that really relevant?”

 

Carter crossed her arms as she ran their conversation through her head.  These people had it in for us from the start.  “Yes,” Carter said.  “We’re not letting you go if you’re axe murderers or otherwise deserve to be here.”

 

“Axe murders?” Dalton repeated, a sudden interest in his face.  “Where are you from?”

 

“It is of little importance,” Teal’c said after a shared look with Carter and Baal.

 

“Hey, now,” Greene said, “it’s only fair.  Maybe we don’t want to be rescued by you?”

 

Baal stood from his examination.  “Yes, well, it’s hardly a fair world, is it?  We’re out here,” he pointed to the ground, “and you’re stuck.”

 

Dalton heaved a sigh and mumbled something under his breath.

 

Carter leaned a little closer.  “What?”

 

He sighed again and looked up to meet Carter’s eyes.  “Earth,” he said.

 

Carter didn’t even blink for a moment.  Then she turned and walked out of the courtyard, the others following without a word.

 

“Great,” Dalton muttered.  “Figures.”

 

“Nice job, Major,” Greene said.

 

Dalton grumbled under his breath and bent over, then whipped the rock he’d picked up at the other man. 

 

---

Baal looked back on the two men and then turned to face Carter.  “They really don’t like each other,” he said.

 

“Indeed.”

 

Carter waved a hand.  “Do we let them out or not?”

 

“Why don’t you think they’re trustworthy?” Baal asked.

 

“They are exceedingly hostile for teammates,” Teal’c said.

 

“Well, not everyone can be you two,” Baal said and smiled.

 

“Still, there’s just something…” Carter rubbed the back of her neck.  “That Greene guy, I don’t like him.  Dalton seems okay.”

 

“We could just let Dalton out,” Baal suggested.

 

“And they may be helpful in escaping the maze,” Teal’c added.  “They have clearly been here longer than us.”

 

Carter sighed.  “Why so reluctant to admit they’re from Earth?”

 

Baal looked up at the sky and shuffled his feet.  Carter noticed immediately, her eyes boring into him. 

 

“What do you know?”

 

Baal sighed.  He’d never been good at keeping things from her.  “Nothing for sure, just rumours,” he said. 

 

“Just say it, Baal,” Carter said, knowing he was stalling when he prefaced information like that.

 

“Well, your Stargate program didn’t stay as… noble… as it was in your timeline.”

 

“Meaning?”

 

“Meaning,” Baal paused and nibbled on his lip, “SG teams started to be perceived as somewhat… mercenary.  They stole.  They meddled and never tried to fix the messes they made.  It led to rather… hostile reception by other peoples.  It ultimately led to the Taur’i’s downfall as a significant force in the galaxy.”

 

Carter looked to Teal’c as she rooted around in her memory, looking for the cause of such a radical difference.  She saw the light come on in Teal’c’s eyes long before she’d made any progress.

 

“The NID teams,” he said.

 

Carter closed her eyes and thought it over.  What Baal described fit exactly with how the rogue teams had operated.  But she didn’t see how it could have happened.  Ultimately, it didn’t matter.  “Whatever,” Carter said, “it’s irrelevant.  Let’s get that Dalton guy.”

 

“And Greene?” Teal’c asked as they headed back to the courtyard.

 

“He can stew,” Carter said.

 

Dalton’s head popped up as he heard them come back.  He smiled a bit.  “You’re back.  Whoa!”  He raised his hands and stepped back when Carter pulled her gun.  He flinched when she fired and then squinted his eyes open, surprised to see the chain was severed.

 

Carter jerked her head at him.  “Come on,” she said.

 

“Hey!” Greene stood and yelled as they started walking away.  “Hey!  What about me?”

 

Dalton was the only one who acknowledged him.  He turned his head and waved a bit, “Hang tight, Greene!  Don’t go anywhere.”

 

“Hey!  Major Dalton!” Greene shook the bars of his prison and then yelled in frustration.

 

Dalton couldn’t help but smile.

 

---

They’d walked a fair bit, far enough that Greene’s yells could no longer reach them, when they stopped.

 

Carter turned to face Dalton.  “Sit,” she said, gesturing at the ground.  He sat without a word.  She collapsed next to him and pulled his boot closer, examining the lock before pulling a multi-tool from her pocket.

 

“Explain your presence here,” Teal’c said.

 

“In the maze?” Dalton asked.

 

“Indeed.”

 

“We were just checking the planet out,” Dalton said.  “And then that idiot Greene went wandering off.  I went after him and caught up just in time to realize he’d apparently violated some sacred taboo or whatever and they threw us in here.”

 

“As punishment?” Baal clarified.

 

“Yeah,” Dalton said.

 

Carter was fiddling with the lock but riveted to the conversation.  “Is it possible to get out?”

 

“Apparently,” he said.  “But not very many people do.”

 

“How many is not very many?” Baal asked.

 

Dalton shrugged.  “I don’t remember,” he said.  “Hey, why don’t you know this, anyway?  I thought they gave the same spiel to everyone.”

 

The trio exchanged a series of rapid-fire glances that Dalton followed in confusion.  The shackle gave a low click and Carter leaned back.  “We’re here… accidentally,” she said.

 

“You what?  Wandered in?” Dalton asked, his disbelief heavy in his voice.

 

“More or less,” Baal said.

 

Dalton’s eyes flicked between them all as he absorbed that.  He finally focused on Carter.  “Who are you people, anyway?”

 

Carter stood and brushed herself off.  “For now?  Allies.”

 

“Have you encountered any other people?” Teal’c asked.

 

“Not… directly.  But we came across a body and some older bones.  I don’t think we’re the only ones in here.  And…” He hesitated.

 

“What?” Baal said a little sharply.

 

Dalton glanced at him, his eyes skittering away after a moment.  “I’m not sure everything’s exactly… people.”

 

“Aliens?” Teal’c ventured.

 

When Dalton hesitated, Carter ventured a guess, “Critters?”

 

“Ah… yeah,” Dalton finally said.

 

They exchanged another series of looks before Carter turned and started walking again.  “Great,” she muttered.  “I hate critters.  I hate mazes.  I especially hate mazes with critters.”

 

---

“That’s different,” Baal said.

 

Teal’c put out a boot and pressed down on the flagstones.  The terrain changed abruptly from dirt to a long expanse of the stones with no warning and no apparent reason.

 

Carter stood from hatching an arrow into the dirt with her knife and joined him in his contemplation.  “You been here before?”

 

Dalton shook his head.  “I don’t think so,” he said.  “But we didn’t come through this way.”

 

“How can you be certain?” Teal’c asked.

 

Dalton waved back the way they’d come, “That path Greene was stuck in?  We came through there.  I was first and then the gates popped up to trap him.”

 

“If we get back there, will you know where you are?” Carter asked.

 

“Sure,” Dalton said immediately, “but I don’t think it will help.  I got the impression the way out wasn’t the same as the way in.”

 

Carter groaned.

 

“That would have been useful information before now,” Baal said.

 

“Sorry,” Dalton muttered.

 

“Is there only one point of exit?” Teal’c asked.

 

Dalton shrugged.  “Beats me.  They weren’t exactly big on chit-chat.”

 

“Alright,” Carter said as she stepped onto the stones, “let’s get going.”

 

They had gone perhaps half way across the stone area when Baal paused and looked behind him.  “Now that would be a good place to get to,” he said.  Carter and Teal’c backtracked to see the tip of a tower he’d spotted that just barely jutted above the shrubs.

 

“Uh-huh,” Carter said. 

 

Dalton was ahead of them, caught up in examining the flagstones.  “Hey, guys?”

 

“Mazes usually have a certain logic to their design,” Baal said.  “If we can figure out the pattern, what set of turns takes us to useful areas, we might get out of here.”

 

Dalton turned and took a few steps towards them.  “Guys!”

 

“How do you propose accomplishing such a feat,” Teal’c asked, his scepticism that Baal could find any method to the maze obvious.

 

“Guys!”

 

All three of them turned and said in unison, “What?”

 

Dalton used both hands to point to the ground.  “It’s vibrating.”

 

Carter headed for him first.  “Huh,” she said as she stopped beside him.  She counted off paces quickly.  “This whole four foot area is shaking.”

 

“That’s odd,” Baal said as he started for them, his interest piqued.

 

Teal’c was far more practical.  “Perhaps you should move off the vibrating area.”

 

Carter only had time to look at him and open her mouth before the shaking stones gave one final shudder and then dropped away, plunging her and Dalton into the dark.

 

“Carter!” Baal lunged towards them, sliding onto his knees.

 

“Colonel Carter!” Teal’c was only moments behind Baal, just in time to see the stones snap back into place.

 

Baal snatched his hands back, very nearly losing his fingers.  He swore roundly in Goa’uld and turned to Teal’c.  They shared one moment of mutual shock and anxiety before they stood and started stomping on the stones, trying to get them to open back up.

 

“Damn it!” Baal yelled after several long minutes of fruitless stomping.

 

“I do not believe it will permit us entrance,” Teal’c said.

 

Baal kicked at the stones and threw up his hands.  “Now what?”

 

Teal’c turned back to the tower and tilted his head.  “I believe we should attempt to reach the tower,” he said.  “Colonel Carter will do the same.”

 

Baal blew out a breath and rubbed his goatee.  “You’re right,” he said.  He looked around, trying to deicide which of the three paths they could exit onto was the most likely take them in the direction they wanted.  Finally, he pointed.  “That one.”

 

Teal’c nodded his agreement.

 

Baal took the lead and pulled his knife to keep up Carter’s markers of their passage.  “I hate mazes,” he said after drawing the arrow.

 

“Indeed.”

 

---

They landed with a squelch.

 

“Eww,” Dalton said as he fumbled around in the dark and slipped in the thick, odorous mud they’d landed in.

 

Carter gained her feet first and grabbed his arm, hauling him up.  “You have a flashlight?”

 

“Huh?  Oh,” Dalton made rustling noises as he stuck his hands in his pockets.  “Yeah,” he finally said and switched it on.  The tiny beam of light that his penlight emitted was verging on the ridiculous and he could tell from the look on her face that she was not impressed.  “It’s better than nothing,” he said.

 

Carter made a scoffing sound and pushed him ahead of her. 

 

“If I’m first, can I at least have a gun?” Dalton asked.

 

Carter sighed but pulled one of her weapons and handed it to him.  “Happy?”

 

“Yeah,” he said and struck out through the muck.  It was just shy of knee-deep; it didn’t seem bad now, but given enough time slogging through it would seem impossible.  Dalton was just concentrating on not falling over since he didn’t think that would impress her.  And it wasn’t like he had tons of points in his favour that he could squander.

 

---

Carter followed close enough to Dalton not to lose him, but far enough that his light wouldn’t destroy her night-vision.  She had a feeling that mud wasn’t all this tunnel contained.

 

The only good point Carter could see was that, so far, it seemed to be a straight shot.  And that meant, since there’d been no way up from where they’d fallen and no other direction than the one they were currently walking in, there wasn’t any chance of getting lost – and the exit was, presumably, at the end of the tunnel.

 

Easy.

 

A skittering sound and the barest flash of yellow light on Carter’s right destroyed that assessment.  “Dalton,” she said quietly.

 

He froze in his steps immediately and turned his head to indicate he was listening.

 

Carter spared one moment to appreciate his response.  “Turn off the light.”

 

“What?”

 

“Turn it off!”

 

Dalton hesitated only a second more before he clicked it off, plunging them back into total blackness.  “Now what?”

 

“Shh,” Carter said.  “Stay still.” 

 

They stood in frozen silence for an indeterminate amount of time.  Carter turned only her head, slowly side to side, looking. 

 

And then a flash of yellow met her eyes, but this time it stayed, still and steady.  Then another.  And another.  They popped up in the darkness, along what had to be the walls of the tunnel, some clearly in the mud and others higher like they were attached to the walls.

 

“Jee-sus,” Dalton said under his breath.  “The hell are those?”

 

Carter instinctively reached out and clasped her hand on his gun arm.  “Don’t shoot them,” she said.

 

“Why?”

 

“Because they’re animals, Dalton.  Animals don’t usually attack unless provoked.  Just… turn the light back on and start walking.”

 

Dalton moved slowly, all too aware of the fact that those little yellow lights could probably see him a hell of a lot better than he could see them, and flipped the penlight on.  He kept it carefully pointed away from them and pushed one cautious leg forward.

 

Carter followed closely behind Dalton, her hand on his back to reassure him.  She kept it there until the tunnel bended just a bit and took them fully away from the lights.  Carter felt his back muscles loosen before she pulled her hand away.

 

“Good,” Carter pitched her voice low, “Now walk a bit faster, huh?”

 

---

“Did you hear that?” Baal asked.

 

Teal’c cocked his head.  “I hear many things.”

 

“The one that sounded sort of like… a roar.”

 

Teal’c turned to look at Baal, “Do you fear running into one of Colonel Carter’s ‘critters’?”

 

“Fear?” Baal asked.  He straightened his shoulders just a bit.  “No.  But I am concerned.”

 

“Indeed,” Teal’c said as he turned back to choosing their next branching path, “it did sound rather large.”

 

Baal nodded and pulled his gun, just to be sure.  “My point, exactly.”

 

“I believe we should go this way,” Teal’c finally said as he inclined his head to the left.

 

Baal checked the position of the tower, which hadn’t gotten any closer in the last several hours, and then retraced their turns in his head.  “Agreed,” he said and then looked at the sun.  “I think we should start looking for a place to spend the night.”

 

“One of the courtyards perhaps?” Teal’c said as he started walking, keeping a wary eye on the seemingly sentient shrubs.  “They seem easy to find.”

 

“Mhmm,” Baal hummed under his breath.  “And I don’t relish the thought of waking up to whatever that was on one of these paths.  Nowhere to run.”

 

“Indeed,” Teal’c said.  “I am beginning to share Colonel Carter’s dislike for mazes.”

 

“You and me both,” Baal muttered.

 

---

Dalton hunched deeper into his jacket and flicked a clump of mud off his knee, miserable.  They’d stopped apparently for the night, not that they knew for sure.  But it felt to him like they’d been walking for days.  Except now, between sitting up to his waist in mud and being paranoid about yellow lights, he couldn’t drift off.

 

“So…” He ventured just to fill the silence.  “Did I hear them yell Colonel?”  Dalton felt like he should cross his fingers for an answer.  If he’d thought she was grumpy and uncommunicative before, she’d only gotten worse as time – and miles of mud – had passed.

 

“Yes,” her voice finally came, disembodied, out of the dark.

 

“So, you’re a Colonel… from Earth?” He guessed.  Silence met him so he kept going.  “I haven’t seen you or your friends before so you’re not from the SGC.  And if you were, well, you wouldn’t have been sent after me.  And you seem, well, Earth-like.  Axe murderers and all.”

 

A long, put-upon sigh answered him.  “It’s complicated,” Carter said.

 

“I can do complicated,” Dalton said and edged a bit closer, eager to keep the conversation going.

 

“What year is it?”

 

The non-sequitur caught him totally flat-footed.  “Wh… why do you want to know?  Why don’t you know?”

 

“It’s-“

 

“Complicated,” Dalton said.  “Yeah.  I got that.” He paused and decided giving her what she wanted was the best way to endear himself.  “It’s 2289,” he said.

 

More silence.

 

“Huh,” Carter finally said.

 

“Huh?” Dalton repeated, now more confused.  “Are you going to answer any of my questions?”

 

“Maybe,” Carter said.  “But not now,” she paused for a moment then spoke again.  “Why wouldn’t a team come after you?”

 

“Huh?  Oh, right,” Dalton mumbled as he searched for the best way to say it.  “Well, I’m not exactly what they want in their people.  Don’t quite fit the ideal standards.”

 

“Meaning?”

 

“Meaning, I’m not into lying, stealing, and cheating to get what they want.”

 

“So why are you part of the command?”

 

Dalton shrugged but it went unseen in the dark.  “I have a few friends in the right places.  They’re trying to turn things around but it’s too little, too late.”

 

Carter mulled that over for a minute.  “So they got you the job and then hung you out to dry?”

 

“It’s not… as bad as it sounds,” Dalton said, feeling the need to defend people she’d never met.

 

“Sounds simple to me,” Carter said.  “You said the SGC would leave you to get captured and die.”

 

Dalton blew out a sigh as he realized he couldn’t argue with her.  “I guess.”

 

She snorted, and he didn’t know if it was a sign of disgust or what.  And if it was disgust Dalton wondered if it was for him or the SGC.

 

---

Carter turned slightly away from Dalton and closed her eyes, determined to sleep.  She’d finally had to call a stop even though she’d wanted nothing more than to get out of the creepy ass tunnels as fast as possible.  But the cold, thick mud had started aggravating her knee and Dalton had been trying her last nerve.

 

Try as she might, though, her mind swirled with the date.  2289.  They’d come back almost two hundred years.  It was more than she’d hoped for but still nowhere close to their time. 

 

And things still weren’t adding up.  Like an SGC that would forsake its people, or the fact that two centuries after her and Teal’c’s time Earth apparently hadn’t made any significant advances.  The military was often one of the first places technological improvements were seen, but Dalton didn’t have anything to show for it.  Granted, he didn’t have any of his gear but still…

 

His penlight was ridiculous.  His watch looked much like the one she’d had.  And his clothes seemed achingly normal.

 

Something, somewhere, was rotten.  She just didn’t have enough pieces to fit it all together yet.  But she would with enough time.

 

---

“Baal!”  Teal’c shook him a little harder and was finally rewarded with a jolt and small gasp.

 

Baal sat up immediately and looked around.  “What’s wrong?”

 

“We must depart,” Teal’c said.  “The… critter,” he chose Colonel Carter’s word after the briefest of pauses, “is nearing our location.”

 

Baal nodded and climbed to his feet.  He took a moment to orient himself in the dark and then looked at Teal’c.  “Where is it?”

 

Teal’c pointed to the entrance that was, of course, the one they’d come in.

 

Baal spun and picked another likely candidate to take them in the same general direction.  “This way,” he said.

 

Teal’c followed, his fingers gripped firmly around his weapon and his senses on alert.  He was certain they would have to confront the creature eventually, if only because it seemed to have caught their scent or something.  He’d woken numerous times from a light meditative state, certain something was lurking in the shadows, watching them.

 

He knew Baal had experienced much the same agitation.  Teal’c had often seen him sitting in the dark, his eyes wide and watchful, scanning restlessly.  It was only in the last two hours that Teal’c had seen him actually fall asleep.  Although, how much of that restlessness was due to Colonel Carter’s absence Teal’c did not know.

 

“We will have to face it eventually,” Teal’c said.

 

Baal’s nod was barely seen through the night.  “I know.  I’d like to do it with more than our two guns, though.  We don’t know how effective they’ll be.”

 

“A sound strategy,” Teal’c said.

 

Baal paused to choose their next turn and mark the ground.  When he stood he cast Teal’c a brief glance over his shoulder.  “Any suggestions?”

 

Teal’c raised an eyebrow sure that Baal would have one.  “No.”

 

“Me either,” Baal said.  “I don’t do spur of the moment.”

 

“Indeed,” Teal’c murmured.  He’d observed that although Baal was as cerebral a person as Colonel Carter, he always put careful thought and planning into everything he did.  Colonel Carter had a far greater capacity for spontaneity and, as O’Neill would have said, ‘flying by the seat of her pants.’  It was a contrast that Teal’c thought allowed them to complement each other so well.  “However, you will learn,” Teal’c said.

 

“I’m realizing I’ll have to,” Baal said.  “Travelling with the two of you is dangerous.”

 

Another roar shattered the twilight stillness and had them pausing to exchange looks.

 

“That sounded close,” Baal said.

 

“I believe it would be prudent to think of a plan immediately.”

 

“Unfortunately they don’t grow on trees,” Baal said as he turned to start walking again.  His foot kicked something hard, sending it skittering down the path.  He paused and bent over to get a better look.  “On the other hand, this could work.”

 

Teal’c peered over his shoulder and nodded.  “Most definitely.”

 

---

His stomach grumbled for the third time in as many minutes so Carter gave up.  “Dalton.”

 

“Gah!” Dalton jumped at her voice.  “I didn’t know you were awake, Colonel.”

 

Carter shuffled through the mud and found his hand.  She pulled it up and slapped a bar of dried and pressed fruit – they’d been Delia’s specialty – into his hand.  “You could have said something.”

 

Dalton tore off the paper wrapping he could feel and took a bit with a feeling of extreme relief.  “I didn’t know you had food,” he mumbled around the bar.

 

“You don’t keep any on you?”

 

“No,” Dalton said as he swallowed.  “Why would I?”

 

Carter sighed.  “Newbie,” she mumbled as she pushed herself up, barely stifling a groan.

 

“You okay, Colonel?”

 

Carter bit her lip to keep from snapping at him.  It wasn’t his fault that sitting in the cold, sticky mud had not only ticked her off but stiffened her knee to unimaginable levels.  Her shoulder was twinging as well, the way it always had before a big storm on the Wasi planet.

 

Dalton squelched his way to his feet.  “Because you don’t sound okay,” he said, thinking she was simply ignoring him again.

 

“If I wasn’t,” Carter said, “what would you do about it?”

 

“Uh…” Dalton paused as he thought that over.  “I see your point.”

 

She pushed on his back, encouraging him to start walking again.  The paltry beam of his penlight soon pierced the darkness, revealing nothing but more unending mud. 

 

Carter wondered how long it would be before Dalton inevitably started talking again.  It puzzled her because he didn’t seem like a particularly loquacious kind of guy.  He was thickset with squared shoulders, a stout neck, a firm jaw, and a bona fide buzz cut.  Dalton looked very much like a grizzled army man or perhaps a marine.  Not the kind of person you’d expect to chat up anywhere.  Though she supposed he was nervous or simply didn’t like silences unless he was the one instituting them.

 

“So, Colonel,” Dalton said.

 

Two hundred, forty-seven paces Carter noted. 

 

“Your friends.  How about names?”

 

“Teal’c and Baal.”

 

“Which is which?”

 

“Teal’c’s the big guy,” Carter said.

 

Dalton faltered for only a second.  In his estimation, both of them could be defined as ‘big’.  Though one had certainly been more muscular.  “With the gold thing?”

 

Gold thing?  Does he know anything about the SGC’s history?  “Mmmhm,” Carter hummed her assent

 

“Hm.  So how’d you meet?”

 

“Complicated,” Carter said.

 

“Okay, well,” Dalton gamely moved on, aware that for now ‘complicated’ meant ‘not going to be answered.’  “You known them long?”

 

“Yep,” Carter said and heard Dalton’s aggrieved sigh.  She decided to take pity on him since she sort of liked him.  “Thirty years or so for Teal’c.  About twenty for Baal.”

 

“Thirty!“ Dalton stopped and turned around, brining his light with him.  It landed square on her face and he jolted it away when he caught her wince.  “Sorry.  But thirty!  You’re not… that old.”

 

Carter snorted and turned him around.  “That’s really complicated.”

 

Dalton muttered something under his breath, adding to Carter’s amusement, until he suddenly dropped from in front of her.

 

“Dalton!” Carter took a cautious step, afraid he’d fallen through another trap door.  She stopped when he popped back into view, sputtering and coughing.

 

“Phew!  Ahg.  Oh, gross!”  He flailed around, wiping at his mouth and scratching at his eyes.  “I’m never going to get the mud off me,” he said as he fumbled around in the mud.  “I think… I lost the penlight.”

 

Carter carefully sought out the edge he’d walked off of into a significantly deeper pool of mud.  The level was high on his chest; they’d be able to swim through it if it wasn’t so thick.

 

“Ah-ha!” Dalton cried as he brandished the light.

 

Carter eased herself over the edge, not relishing the thought of a mud bath.  She swore softly as the mud crept up almost to her shoulders.  At this rate she wasn’t going to be able to move in another few hours.

 

Dalton finished clearing the grim off his light and turned to continue their trek.  He hadn’t taken more than a dozen steps when he stumbled and stopped, yelping.

 

“What?”

 

“There’s some… I think,” Dalton looked down, trying to see through the muck, “there’s something in here.  Ah!  It’s biting me!”

 

Carter grimaced when she felt a current of movement around her legs.  She pushed on his back.  “Go.  They can’t get you easily if you’re walking.  We have to go through here.”

 

He nodded with a grimace and started walking as fast as possible.  Carter followed closely, feeling like she was exerting enough effort to be running but was barely moving.

 

“I hope it’s not like this the rest of the way,” Dalton huffed.

 

Carter groaned and smacked his shoulder.  “Don’t jinx it!”

 

“Sorry,” he said then yelped again.

 

Carter clenched her jaw when she felt two rows of tiny teeth sink themselves into her shin and then wondered if her gun would work in all the mud.

 

---

Teal’c carefully counted steps back from the trap they’d discovered, marked by the sun-bleached skull Baal had nearly tripped over.

 

Baal watched carefully, making his own mental map of the area lest he be skewered as well.  “What is this called again?”

 

“I believe the term is… bobby trap,” Teal’c said.

 

“Boo-by… trap,” Baal repeated slowly.  He thought it over for a long minute.  “That’s ridiculous,” he finally said. 

 

“The Taur’i have many baffling expressions,” Teal’c said.

 

“It doesn’t make any sense.”

 

“I believe you should ask Colonel Carter,” Teal’c said as he turned to Baal and nodded.  “I am prepared.”

 

“Great,” Baal said, looking at him.  “Now what?”

 

“Now,” Teal’c turned and gestured down the path, “you must be bait.”

 

“What… why me?  We just established my lack of spontaneity.  You have far more experience.”

 

“Indeed,” Teal’c said as he took his chosen position.  “But there is… no time like the present to learn.”

 

“Fine,” Baal said with a scowl.  “But if I get eaten by that… that…thing!… I’m holding you responsible.”

 

Teal’c nodded.  “Very well.”

 

Baal continued down the path and poked his head around all the corners.  They knew the critter was around here somewhere.  The sun was just starting to rise and they’d heard it stalking them all night, skulking along parallel paths and setting them on edge.

 

He was just ruminating on the intricacies of capturing its attention and getting it to follow him when he turned a corner and came face to back with it.  Baal blinked in surprise.  They hadn’t actually seen it before.  It was taller than him or Teal’c and had four arms.  It apparently had a combination of fur and reptilian looking skin.  Those were the only details he could glean before it turned and looked right at him.

 

“Uh…” Baal said stupidly as he froze.  It seemed as shocked to see him as Baal felt at being bait.  “Ah, hell,” he finally muttered and raised his gun, taking a page from Carter’s book and shooting it a few times.

 

The first two shots seemed to glance right off its hide, the third and fourth left small marks.  Then it was roaring and screeching all at once, sufficiently pissed off that Baal was confident it would follow him.

 

He turned and took off running, hoping like hell their trap would be enough because their guns sure weren’t.

 

---

“Son of a bitch!” Carter swore as she shook her leg to dislodge the creature.  It was stubborn as hell though.  She plunged her hand through the mud and grabbed it, squeezing and shaking until she felt its spine – or something – crack. 

 

Carter released it with a shudder, the long, skinny body reminding her irresistibly of Goa’uld larva.  It was for more likely they were some kind of fish or eel but she still couldn’t shake the comparison.

 

“Colonel!” Dalton’s sudden yell took Carter from her rapidly spiralling thoughts.  “It’s the end of the pit!”  He was pushing himself up onto the ledge as he said it, his relief clear.

 

“Finally,” Carter muttered as she made haste to join him.  She almost walked directly into the ledge, would have if Dalton hadn’t been perched up there waiting for her.  Carter planted her hands on the edge but paused; her shoulder wouldn’t be up to pressing her body weight up any distance on the best of days.

 

Dalton seemed to realize her problem, even if he had no idea about its source.  He held out his hand without a word.  Carter took it and braced herself as he pulled.  They landed in a heap, the mud squelching and oozing its way between them.

 

“At least it’s not as deep here,” Dalton said from his position under Carter.  If they’d landed like this on the other side of the pit Dalton would have been totally submerged.

 

Carter found her feet and helped him up.  She edged around him as something caught her eye.  “You see that?”

 

Dalton turned and strained his eyes.  “You see it, too?  I thought it was wishful thinking.”

 

“It’s definitely light,” Carter said.  It had an odd, bluish tinge to it, definitely not sunlight.  More like a bioluminescence.  But it likely meant the way out was close.

 

They were close enough to the light for Carter to make out Dalton’s features again when a high-pitched, wailing screech reached their ears.  Seconds later a score of yellow lights appeared in the darkness, moving inexorably, steadily closer.

 

Dalton edged towards the blue light.  “What’s happening?  Why are they going to attack now?”

 

Carter moved backwards too, herding him along behind her.  “I don’t-“ She paused and remembered the snapping of a spine.  There were lots of animals that lived in symbiotic relationships. 

 

“Oh, shit,” Carter said.

 

---

Baal really hoped Teal’c was ready, because the four-armed mammazard was bearing right down on him, snorting and huffing like it was trying to stretch that extra few feet and take a bite out of his shoulder.

 

He skidded around a corner then planted his foot, forcing himself in a tight circle to turn around.  “Wrong way,” he muttered as he ducked out and forced himself into a sprint to regain the distance he’d lost.

 

Third left.  Then right.  Second right then a left.  Then straight to Teal’c.

 

Baal stumbled around the last corner and looked up, catching the glint of sun on the stone arch that marked where he’d left Teal’c.  He breathed a sigh of relief at remembering the route and that he’d taken correctly then poured on the speed for the home stretch.

 

As he rounded the last curved Baal started counting paces off.

 

Five. 

 

The mammazard was a bit behind. 

 

Four.

 

The timing needed to be just right, so Baal slowed the tiniest bit.

 

Three.

 

He waited with his foot suspended in mid-air for a moment until he could almost feel its breath on his neck.

 

Two.

 

Baal saw a flash of movement that he knew was Teal’c, crouched down and waiting.

 

One.  Jump!

 

Baal firmly planted his foot on the last step and launched forward over the stones in the arch that they’d identified as the trigger.  He cleared it cleanly but couldn’t stop in time to avoid the shrub that was racing towards him.  Baal lunged to the left down another path, not relishing the thought of hitting the thorny bush and knowing the mammazard would be right behind him.

 

He landed with a thump and skidded a few feet as his momentum bled away.

 

An enraged sounding screech told him that at the very least their trap had hit its mark.

 

---

Teal’c watched as Baal flew through the arch.  The second he was clear and with the creature bearing down on his position, Teal’c jammed the stick he’d carefully broken from one of the shrubs onto the activating stone.

 

Skewers shot from both sides of the arch, impaling the creature on both sides.  It would have stopped, likely instantly killed, any human and most aliens.  But the creature was still moving, significantly slowed with blood seeping down its sides, but moving drunkenly forward.

 

Teal’c stood, drew his gun, and fired a series of blasts into its injured sides.  The creature stumbled and turned to face this new threat.  It wobbled on its feet and finally fell over, tumbling through the shrub that Baal had dove to the side to avoid.

 

Baal pushed himself up to peer at it, sprawled only a few feet from his outstretched legs.  “Is it dead?”

 

Teal’c kicked at its odd hoof-like feet and examined its chest for movement.  He shot a it a few more times and then nodded, satisfied.  “I believe so.”

 

Baal thumped his head back onto the ground and released a long sigh.  “Great.  Let’s not do that again.”

 

“Indeed,” Teal’c answered absently as he examined the hole the creature had made in the shrub by landing in it.  He looked up and found the peak of the tower lying exactly in that direction.  “Baal.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I believe we should utilize this opportunity,” Teal’c said.

 

Baal forced his head up and saw the hole.  He scrambled to his feet and nodded.  “Definitely,” he said and then stepped gingerly over the dead body.

 

Teal’c followed and then turned.  “Why has it not regenerated?”

 

“Maybe it can’t,” Baal said, “when something’s in the way.”

 

Teal’c turned his head to shoot Baal a significant look, raised eyebrow included.  “Indeed?”

 

A smile grew on Baal’s face.  “That’s a great idea,” he said and looked around.

 

Teal’c wandered in the opposite direction.  It wasn’t long until he’d found some rocks of sufficient size.  “Shall we test our theory?”

 

Without a word Baal bent to help pick up the large rock.  They swung their arms back and forth, Teal’c counting softly.  On three they released the rock.  It hurtled forward and crashed to the ground.  A sizable dent had been left in the shrub but not a through and through hole.

 

“Must not have had enough force,” Baal said.  “But it’s not regenerating.”

 

“Again?”

 

They did the same thing with another rock and got the same results.  The dent got bigger but still wasn’t a true hole.

 

“This… could get tedious,” Baal said.

 

“Indeed, but if we identify a shrub that is at the perimeter of the maze it would be worth the effort,” Teal’c said.

 

Baal craned his head back and looked at the tower, now significantly closer.  “So let’s go identify that shrub.”

 

---

“Okay,” Carter said softly, “move back.  Slowly.”  She felt him easing backwards, taking one careful step at a time. 

 

Dalton stumbled a bit and steadied himself on her shoulder.  “Kinda rough here, Colonel,” he said.

 

Carter nodded her acknowledgment but kept her attention glued to the lights.  She’d identified at least twenty-seven separate pairs.  That was a lot of things to be swarmed by.  She’d dropped her hand to her gun long ago and could only hope it wasn’t totally gunked up with mud and now utterly useless.

 

“Alright,” Dalton breathed quietly, “the wall’s right behind me.  I don’t see a door or anything.”

 

Carter could hear a slightly desperate edge to his voice.  If the light had been some kind of decoy, if this wasn’t really the way out and they’d missed a turn somewhere in the dark, then they’d just walked themselves into a dead end.  Literally.

 

“Relax,” Carter said.  “Look.”

 

Dalton turned his head in every direction, scrutinizing every shadow, every spot that seemed slightly darker or lighter and might indicate a door, a hatch, a portal… anything.  But he couldn’t help being aware of those ever closing yellow lights, accompanied by the lowest register growling he’d ever heard.  “Nothing, Colonel,” he rasped in her ear.

 

Carter pulled her eyes away from the yellow eyes with a fair amount of reluctance.  She swept her eyes around the room once, trusting her mind to capture the details.  Carter focused back on the lights and reviewed the mental map she had in her head.  And found… nothing.

 

She clenched her jaw and drew her gun slowly.  If they had to fight, they’d fight.  But there had to be…

 

Click.

 

The angles of light, the shadows, where the pools of blue fell on the floor, the slightest draft she’d ever felt.  It coalesced and nailed an origin.

 

“Up, Dalton.  Look up.”

 

Dalton tilted his head back and nearly choked on his relief.  “A hatch, Colonel.  There’s a hatch.”  He looked around and saw a rock placed just exactly so.  When he stepped onto the rock it was to be met with a keypad of sorts, various symbols he’d never seen before mocking him.  “God damn.”

 

“What?”

 

“It’s some kind of… puzzle, or something.”

 

Carter risked a glance behind her and eased back another step.  The lights were now within a body length, forming a loose half circle that was cutting off any avenues of retreat.  “Get down.  Let me see.”

 

They switched places rapidly but smoothly, Carter pressing her gun into his other hand.  Dalton held both of them on the yellow lights that were resolving themselves into knee-high, four-legged, vicious looking animals that reminded him of coyotes.  Their lips were pulled back, revealing exceptionally large fangs.  He licked his upper lip nervously, catching a few beads of sweat.

 

“Can you do it?”

 

Carter was staring at the keys, totally absorbed in the puzzle, that niggling feeling in the back of her head telling her she had the answer somewhere.

 

“Colonel?”

 

“Shh!” Carter huffed it out, making it harsh but quiet at the same time.  “Not if you yak at me.”

 

Dalton swallowed and turned back to the animals.  They were advancing stiff-legged, a stance he recognized, their growls starting to build in a crescendo of violence. 

 

He stood in painfully tense silence, every whisper of sound across his ears making him flinch.  One of the animals broke from the pack and hunched down.  Dalton took aim.  He knew that stance.  The second it leapt for him he fired.  The animal yelped and fell to the side in a heap, still.

 

But now the rest were really mad.  Their growling increased tenfold and, as one, they started advancing faster.  Dalton glanced over his shoulder once before they attacked. 

 

The Colonel had a slack, distant look on her face, like she’d fallen asleep standing up.  He didn’t know if that was good or bad and he didn’t have time to find out.  Dalton turned back to the animals and started firing indiscriminately, taking them down before they could jump at him.

 

But more were coming out of the dark and Dalton knew he couldn’t do this forever.

 

---

Carter kept her eyes on the keys, felt her world narrow down to encompass the hatch.  She knew they were letters.  She knew it.  But what they meant, and what you were supposed to spell, she had no idea.  But the answer had to be here somewhere.  They wouldn’t design a puzzle that had no clues when the answer could be any of a million words.

 

It had to be here.

 

But they didn’t have time because she was sure no one had anticipated that people would be under attack.

 

Then again, maybe they had.

 

Carter’s eyes flicked over the keypad and dismissed it.  The clue she needed wasn’t there.  It was simply the means to provide the answer.  She looked at the hatch and caught the faintest marks in the surface.  Carter leaned closer and swiped some dirt and mud away.

 

More letters.  Far more than on the keypad.  An actual sentence.  And now she had something to work with, enough to actually have context and identify the script.  So many possibilities, so many derivatives, so much time for things to change and mutate.

 

But Carter knew it was there, floating just beyond her reach. 

 

Click.

 

She was pushing buttons before she realized what had happened.  The rest of the world faded back into focus as she jabbed her finger on the last one and the hatch slide to the side with a small hiss.

 

Dalton’s wild gunfire hit her first.  Carter turned to see him fending off the animals but it was a losing battle.  She jumped from the rock and drew her knife, slashing forward just in time to catch one on the neck as it lunged from the side.

 

“Go!” Carter yelled as she pulled one of her guns from his hand.  He went and Carter followed, watching his back as he hopped onto the rock and reached for the ladder.  Carter got onto the rock as soon as he left, using the extra height to her advantage.

 

Dalton paused partway up, just barely able to see the Colonel on the rock, shooting and kicking in every direction.  He sent a few shots down to help her escape.  “Colonel!  Let’s go!”

 

Carter slammed her gun into its holster and turned for the ladder.  She didn’t think about it, just jumped and grabbed the bottom rung with both hands.  It sent a jolt down her protesting body and wrenched her shoulder.  Carter firmed her grip and pulled up until she was high enough to force her right hand higher.

 

 The mere seconds of dependence on her left shoulder almost undid her.  Her left hand released its grip just as her right found purchase.  She narrowly avoided slamming her chin on a rung when her body dropped down.  But it was enough to drop her legs back into danger territory.  One opportunistic animal was suddenly dangling from her leg. 

 

Carter kept moving, though.  She couldn’t shoot it, couldn’t shake it off.  Move or die.  She swung her unencumbered leg and found that bottom rung, pushed her body up and moved her hands up, her weight now off her shoulder.  As soon as she’d fully entered the tunnel Carter slammed her leg to the side and took the animal with her.  It released its grip to yelp and landed with a distantly heard thud.

 

She moved up a few more rungs, wanting the security of that extra distance, and then stopped.  She wasn’t sure she could move anymore.

 

“Colonel,” Dalton’s voice floated down from above.  “You okay?”

 

Carter just nodded. 

 

“We can rest once we’re out,” he said.  “It’s just a little more.”  His voice was gruff but soft; Carter new he’d noticed her problems but he hadn’t been anything except understatedly concerned. 

 

“Yeah,” Carter finally gasped out to reassure him.  She heard him start moving again and had to force herself to take that next step.  She didn’t look up.  She didn’t want to know how much farther.  It would be better if it was a surprise.

 

And then, suddenly, there was sunlight as Dalton pushed the last hatch aside.  He scrambled through the turned to offer his hand.  Carter took it, equally grateful and relieved.

 

They collapsed onto the ground by the hatch, breathing deeply and harshly as they stared up at the sun.  Well, Dalton stared.  Carter squeezed her eyes shut as she sought out her sunglasses.

 

Once she found them she turned her head with a great effort.  Carter took in his mud-smeared profile and couldn’t even muster up a kernel of amusement.  She assumed she looked as bad.  She didn’t care.  She just wanted to sleep for a day or two.

 

Carter turned her eyes back to the sky and distantly wondered how long they’d actually been in the tunnel.  Then she decided she didn’t care.

 

“I’m too old for this shit,” Carter muttered.

 

Dalton snorted and closed his eyes, content to nap in the sunshine.

 

---

Greene shook his canteen and then threw it down in disgust.  Empty.  He now had no food and no water.  And if Major Dalton and his newfound friends were going to release him they would have been back long ago.  An entire day and half of another had passed and he hadn’t seen or heard anything from them.

 

He stood, determined again to get out of his prison, even though he’d been over both the gates a thousand times already.  But if he didn’t he would die, from dehydration or exposure or something.

 

He ran his hands over the bars and found that one that seemed a little looser than the others, shaking and twisting it some more. 

 

Greene couldn’t believe Dalton had left.  Granted, Greene had been added to Dalton’s team at the last second by the General, a man Dalton did not like at all.  The Major was smart enough to realize that Greene was there to keep an eye on him, maybe help his “disappearance” along.  And knowing Dalton was smart enough to figure it out meant Greene hadn’t taken any pains to hide his own opinion of the Major, which wasn’t very high at all.

 

But despite the animosity between them, Greene hadn’t anticipated that Dalton would just up and leave.  He’d thought the man had more loyalty and decency than that.  Abandoning someone in a hostile maze was a move worthy of Greene himself and most of the other officers of the SGC, but not someone like Major John Dalton, who was upright and honourable, fair and compassionate, and therefore not well regarded by everyone else at the SGC who had an agenda.  Not to mention he stuck out like a sore thumb.

 

It ticked Greene off even more and fuelled his desire to get out of this God-forsaken maze if only to see the Major get what was coming to him.

 

But those other three people worried him.  They were total unknowns and hadn’t liked him much at all.  Even more worrisome was that they’d all looked competent and experienced, perhaps even formidable.  If they’d allied with Dalton then he was going to be even harder to get to.

 

Greene gave up twisting the bar and switched to kicking, his weight braced on the other gate.

 

Though perhaps the way to finally get to John Dalton would be through his newfound friends.  All Greene had to do was get out of here and, if no other opportunity presented itself, find a way at Dalton through the trio. 

 

It should be simple enough.  As much as Dalton disliked Greene, the Major wouldn’t forbid him from returning with them to Earth if he joined up with them.  Dalton wasn’t that much of a hard-ass.  And then it would simply be a matter of listening and watching to glean as much information as possible and find a way to take the others out of the picture.

 

Simple.

 

The bar popped loose.  Greene picked it up and used it to leverage the other bars off, opening a hole large enough for him to squeeze through.  He was in business.

 

---

Dalton sighed in relief when he turned the corner to see a courtyard, complete with fountain.  He hurriedly retraced his steps back to the Colonel.  He wasn’t sure how long they’d been lying on the ground since he’d fallen asleep, but he knew he was bleeding and the mud had stiffened to uncomfortable levels.  He was sure the Colonel would be as uncomfortable when she woke up.

 

Dalton bent over her, loathe to wake her when the very fact that she was still asleep was testament to how tired she was.  But they had things to do.  “Colonel.  Come on Colonel, wake up.”  He made the mistake of touching her shoulder and found himself laid out on his back.

 

Carter propped herself up to get a better look at him.  “Sorry.”

 

Dalton waved.  “My fault,” he said as he stood.  “Come on, I found a fountain.  We can clean up.”

 

As soon as they entered the courtyard Dalton dumped one of the bowls of fruit in with another and scooped out some water.  Then he dunked his head into the fountain and scrubbed.

 

Carter eyed the fountain and decided she’d much rather just jump in.  But then her clothes would be wet and since they’d combined their three small bags of belongings into one – that Teal’c had – upon their arrival, she didn’t have anything else to wear.  So she followed Dalton’s example and dunked her own head and arms.

 

It wasn’t as cold as she expected and felt glorious after the vile mud.  She rooted around in her pockets and pulled out a rag, using it to wipe the largest clumps off her pants and jacket.  Then she stomped her boots as clean as possible and leaned against the fountain in satisfaction.  Dalton was taking far longer but then he’d been entirely submerged.

 

When Dalton finally pulled out of the water he shook himself vigorously, much like a dog, and then smiled.  “That’s better, huh?”

 

Carter nodded and then turned to survey their position.  “We should get going.”

 

“Not so fast, Colonel,” Dalton said as he sat on the fountain edge and tugged off his boots.  “I don’t know about you, but I’m bleeding.  The least we should do is clean them off.”  He glanced up as he rolled h is pants up.  “Come on, Colonel, I can see you limping.”

 

Carter sighed but sat beside him.  “That’s not from anything that happened today.”  But she tugged her own boots off and examined her legs.

 

They both had numerous rows of small puncture marks from the teeth of the eel fish things but they were fairly insignificant.  Carter was pretty sure they’d hurt more from the bruises that would develop than the actual bites.  Dalton had some long scrapes along his arms from the claws of the coyote dogs that he cleaned carefully with the bowl of water and wrapped.  The bite on Carter’s leg had been absorbed mostly by her boot and pant leg, but there were a few deeper, lightly seeping puncture wounds.

 

“Here,” Dalton said as he fished one last scrap of clean cloth from his pocket.  “Wrap it up.”

 

Carter grumbled but did it to make him happy.  Then she pulled her boots back on and stomped her feet to settle them.  “Happy?”

 

Dalton gazed at her with a speculative expression.  “Only if you tell me what’s wrong with your shoulder,” he said as he nodded at her carefully held left arm.

 

“Nothing anyone can fix,” Carter said and then turned, a little fed up with him.  “I’m going.  You can come or you can stay.”  She hadn’t made it out of the courtyard before she heard his light jog to catch up.

 

“Alright, fine.  I get it.  Leave you alone.  No problem,” he said.  “I’m just… worried,” he said.

 

Carter shot him a look that had him recoiling just a bit.  “I’m fine,” she snapped.

 

Dalton felt like saying that she clearly was not ‘fine’ but didn’t think that would be very smart.  So he raised his hands in a gesture that asked for a truce and followed in silence.  Until he couldn’t hold it in any longer.  “Where are we going?”

 

“To the tower,” Carter said.

 

Dalton glanced up at the peak that was immediately to their right.  If they could just get through this last shrub he was sure they’d be there.  But he still wanted to know… “Why?”

 

Carter just barely contained her sigh.  “To find Teal’c and Baal.”

 

“But-“

 

“It’s the last place we talked about,” Carter said over his next words.  “They’ll head there.”

 

Dalton thought that over and supposed it made a certain kind of sense.  But still, it wasn’t like they’d talked about where they’d met if they got separated, like a family did when they went to the local fair.  “But how-“

 

“Thirty years, Dalton,” Carter snapped again.

 

Dalton clicked his mouth closed.  Of course, they’d known each other a long time.  He’d accept that answer because he was only ticking her off with his questions.

 

---

“Finally!” Dalton said as he turned to corner to see the base of the tower.  His good nature had been restored because, through an extended period of silence, he’d noticed the Colonel’s bad mood draining away.  Somewhat, at least.  “Nice sense of direction, Colonel!”

 

Carter just nodded and approached the tower.  She was pathetically grateful to see an actual staircase spiralling to the top and not another ladder.  “Let’s go,” she said and started up the stairs, heavily favouring her bad knee.

 

They stood side-by-side at the railing, gazing out over the maze.  Dalton whistled softly.  “It’s big.  It’s really big.”

 

Carter looked behind them and had to agree.  The maze covered a massive amount of area and the sheer number of paths and dizzying turns were obvious from their vantage point.  “Okay, Dalton.  Where’d you come in?”

 

“Well,” Dalton paused in thought, “the sun was behind us and it was early morning.  So…” He turned to face the sun that was dropping into dusk and then did a one-eighty.  He held out his hands.  “Over here somewhere.”

 

They stared into the distance, tracing the distance outer edge of the maze.  Finally, Dalton pointed.  “There!  That’s the gate.  I remember it.”

 

Carter’s attention was somewhere else, though.  “And that,” she said softly, “looks like the exit.”

 

“What?  Where?”  Dalton turned to where she was looking.  “No way!  It’s only two shrubs to the left of the entrance!”

 

“It makes sense,” Carter said.

 

“How do you figure?”

 

Carter turned to look at him.  “Who looks for the exit of a maze by the entrance?  Most people would assume they have to walk through it to get out.”

 

“Maybe you do,” Dalton said.  “Maybe the only path to there loops through the whole thing.”  But Carter was shaking her head.  “How do you know?”

 

Carter pointed.  “That opening is the only way into that section,” she said.

 

Dalton strained his eyes to see that the area she was indicating was the first turn to the right once you stepped into the maze.  “Well I don’t….” He stopped in remembrance, his tongue poking from his lips as he thought.

 

“What?” Carter finally prompted.

 

“The natives.  They were yelling at us.  Brandishing their weapons.  I just assumed we weren’t moving fast enough for their tastes but…”

 

“They scared you away from the exit,” Carter said and snorted a bit.  “Typical.  They freak you out, you run and pay no attention.  Then you stop.  You’re utterly lost.  Couldn’t retrace your steps if you wanted to.”

 

“And who’d want to?” Dalton said.  “Back that way lies freaky natives.  And they’re explicit that you can’t go out the way you came in.  They cheated!”

 

Carter laughed at that.  “Get used to it, Dalton.”

 

Dalton grumbled but turned back to the maze.  “So let’s figure out how we get there.”

 

“I’ve got it,” Carter said.

 

He turned to her, incredulous.  “Are you serious?”

 

Carter nodded.

 

“But you’ve barely looked at it!  How?”

 

Carter shrugged.  “Mental image.”

 

“What, like… photographic memory?”

 

“No,” Carter scoffed.  “No.  It’s just…” She paused and decided she had no idea how to explain.  She lost time, forgot names, places and a host of other things, but the trade-off had been her ability to hold onto multiple trains of thought and keep a perfect image of something she’d seen in her head.  Carter hadn’t given it much thought because, like most things related to her brain, she didn’t understand it and just accepted it.

 

“Complicated,” Dalton finished for her, his tone of voice making it clear he was getting sick of hearing that.

 

“Yes.  No,” Carter said.  “It’s not something I can explain.”

 

Dalton sighed and then shrugged.  “You’re not an easy person to get to know, Colonel.  You realize that, right?”

 

“You’re doing fine, Dalton,” Carter said and settled herself onto the platform.  Once he’d settled himself across from her she spoke again.  “That other guy.  Uh,” Carter paused as she looked for his name.

 

“You mean Captain ‘Insubordinate Back-Stabbing Asshole’ Greene?”

 

“Yeah,” Carter said.  “Him.  What’s up with that?”

 

Dalton sighed and rubbed his forehead.  “General Keegan dumped him on me at the last minute.  I’m sure he’s supposed to spy on me.”

 

Carter made a noise asking him to continue.

 

“You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d say he wandered over here and got us caught on purpose.  He didn’t seem bothered by being in a maze.”

 

“Maybe he did,” Carter said.  “Maybe he was supposed to get rid of you.”

 

“Yeah, but at the cost of himself?  These people don’t operate like that.  They’re all about what’s in it for them.”

 

Carter shrugged.  “Maybe he’s been here before.  Maybe he knows the way out.”

 

Dalton laughed.  “Yeah, right.  Maybe he…” His forehead creased as he thought about it.  “Damn!”

 

Carter let him stew over that for a bit before asking her next question.  “Who else you got?”

 

“Hmm?  Oh, well.  Two Lieutenants.  Pierce and Hayden.  And another Captain who Greene, unfortunately, has seniority over.”

 

“Which side of the fence do they fall on?”

 

“Oh, they’re all good people.”

 

Carter raised a sceptical eyebrow.

 

“Seriously,” Dalton said.  “Those friends who got me my position provided full dossiers on everyone else so I’d have an idea who to trust.  The Lieutenants are both fresh-faced.  Never heard of the SGC before.  No connections.  They’re innocent.  And the Captain spent the last several months overseas fighting, so…” Dalton shrugged.

 

Carter paused in thinking over her next words when she heard footsteps from the ground.  Dalton heard it to, his whole body suddenly tense and alert.  He was just reaching for his gun and getting ready to peek over when Carter’s hand landed on his arm, that familiar tingle and itch breaking over her skin.

 

“It’s Baal and Teal’c,” she said.

 

“How do you…” He stopped at the look she gave him.  “Right.  Just one of those things,” he muttered to himself and then scrambled to his feet to follow.

 

Carter leaned over the railing of the stairs to look at them and let out a whistle.  Their heads whipped up at the same time.

 

“Carter!

 

“Colonel Carter!  It is good to see you.”

 

Carter smiled and started down the stairs.  “What took you guys so long?”

 

Baal crossed his arms.  “We didn’t get to take the underground shortcut,” he said as his eyes flicked over her.

 

“Yeah?” Dalton said as his head appeared behind her shoulder.  “Well, you didn’t have to slog through gross mud and fight off crazy, biting fish and coyotes.”

 

“Uh-huh,” Baal murmured.  “But you didn’t have to be bait for a mammazard.”

 

Carter laughed.  “A what!”

 

“Mammazard,” Baal said as his arms outlined something really big.  “Four arms, hair like a mammal, skin like a lizard.  A mammazard.”

 

They’d reached the bottom of the stairs as he finished speaking.  Teal’c moved first and captured Carter’s shoulders.  “Are you well?”

 

Carter smiled and squeezed his arms.  “Fine, Teal’c.  A little stiff.”

 

“A few bites.” Dalton chimed in blithely.

 

Carter shot him a look but he shrugged and whistled innocently.  He could tell both men were concerned about the Colonel and figured he could do his part by not glossing over the truth.

 

“Nothing serious,” Carter said to Teal’c.  He studied her for a moment more and then nodded, deciding he and Baal could coax her into a more complete answer later.  After a brief hug he released her.

 

“I know the way out,” Carter said as she turned the way they needed to go.  Baal fell into step beside her and dropped his arm across her shoulders.  Carter leaned into him just the slightest bit.

 

“Great.  And if we can’t find the door we can throw rocks at the shrubs,” Baal said.

 

“Yeah?” Carter asked.

 

“Mmhm,” Baal hummed.  “It’s all about the kinetic energy.”

 

Dalton blinked as he looked between them, trying to figure out the current between them.  All three of them had an odd sort of energy running between them, a connectedness he didn’t know the source of.  Finally he turned to Teal’c.  “They always like that?”

 

“Indeed,” Teal’c said as he took up the rear.

 

Dalton sighed and scratched at his ear, feeling like there was still mud in it.  “Just one of those things,” he whispered.

 

---

“There it is,” Carter said as they stopped a few feet from the exit.  They’d kept walking by unspoken agreement even once the sun had set, wanting to get out of the maze as soon as possible.  Dalton’s penlight and the full moon had provided more than enough light.

 

“Is it acceptable to simply walk out?” Teal’c asked.

 

“Yeah,” Dalton said with a nod.  “Once you’re out, you’re out.  The natives have to accept it.”  He took the lead since he was the only one who knew where to go once on the outside.  “So what are you guys doing now?”

 

The trio exchanged a few looks.  Carter finally answered and decided to take that next step by gifting him with some of the truth.  “We need some information in order to move on.  I need to do some calculations.”

 

“What kind of information?” Dalton asked as he paused and looked around to get his bearings.

 

“Our location, specifically.”

 

“Oh,” he turned, seemingly crestfallen at not being able to help.  “I can’t tell you that.  But you could come back with us to Earth.  Then you’d know where you are.”  Dalton finally spotted what he was looking for and headed off to the left, claiming his stacked belongings.

 

Carter hesitated.  From what little he and Baal had said about Earth she wasn’t sure it was somewhere they wanted to be.

 

Dalton picked up on her apprehension.  “It’ll be fine.  We’ll just say we met you here, just another set of alien representatives.  Despite everything, they still treat potential allies well, at least at the start.  No one will know you’re from Earth or… anything,” he finished lamely, realizing once again how little he knew.  Yes, they were from Earth.  But not the SGC.  So what did that mean?  Who were they, exactly?

 

“It might be the best option,” Baal said.  “How long will it otherwise be before we find out where we are on our own?  Or find someone else willing to help?”

 

Carter mulled that over.  It was a changed world that they knew next to nothing about.  Even with Baal’s knowledge, how much would he really remember since it had been two centuries since he’d lived in this time?  Where could they go that was a guaranteed safe spot?  Nowhere, really.  Earth, at least, would be a fairly known quantity.  She was more confident in their ability to manoeuvre the politics and machinations of the US military and government than totally foreign entities.

 

She finally looked at Teal’c.  “At the very least,” he said after a pause, “we will be able to leave immediately.” He nodded slightly to indicate the remote tucked away in the inner pocket of her jacket. 

 

It was very true.  Once they were on Earth all she had to do was complete the calculations and they could leave in an instant.  They wouldn’t be trapped if someone didn’t want to let them use the Stargate.

 

“Think about it,” Dalton said, “While we rejoin my people.  Come on,” he motioned and started walking up a stone road.

 

---

Greene cursed roundly as he approached the exit and heard Dalton’s voice.  He’d so hoped they would stay lost.  It aggravated them that they’d gotten out before him.  The first time he’d been here they had wandered around for a little more than a week before escaping.  He’d been sure that he would be able to leave, rejoin the team, and report the Major dead.  Dalton would be locked out of the system, never able to return to Earth, and it would be as good as true.  Mission accomplished.

 

He reigned in his anger as their conversation floated to his ears.  They were from Earth?  That didn’t make any sense.  Everyone at the SGC knew everyone else, if only so they’d know who to watch out for.  Greene had never seen those three before and he’d been at the SGC for almost five years now.

 

And certainly, if General Keegan was going to put someone else on the Dalton problem he would have told Greene.  Wouldn’t he?

 

He crept closer and strained his hearing, and it soon became apparent that these people weren’t working for Keegan.  They had something to hide, something Dalton didn’t know about but was willing to help them conceal.  It exhilarated him because it meant his plan to get to Dalton through these three was even more viable. 

 

No matter what they were hiding the mere fact that Dalton was involved in the conspiracy would be enough to crucify him.  And who knew, maybe Greene would get lucky and the trio would have something useful to offer him to help further bolster his career.

 

It seemed this trip wouldn’t be such a waste after all.

 

---

“Listen, all I want to know is if Major Dalton is ever coming back!  It’s a simple question!  Hey, I’m not done talking to you!  Hey!  Damn it!”

 

“They’re not going to talk to you, Lieutenant, you might as well quit trying.”

 

“Oh, like you quit trying?”

 

“Watch it.”

 

“Oh, I’m sorry, sir, but you’ve barely moved on inch in the last four days!”

 

“We’re supposed to wait here.  Those are our orders!”

 

“From someone who could very well use our help!  What is your problem!  He’s our commanding officer.”

 

“And I’m yours when he isn’t here, and I’m telling you to sit down and be quiet!”

 

“Don’t bother,” Dalton said as they finally crested the small hill they’d been walking up, the entire conversation having reached them.  “I’m back.”  He entered the clearing with a smile, his eyes landing on the standing man who returned his expression with an enormous grin.

 

“Sir!” He bounded forward in his exuberance and delivered a healthy slap to the back.  “What happened?  Are you okay?  Who are these people?”

 

Dalton laughed and raised his hands.  “Take a breath, Hayden.  I’m fine.”  Dalton turned a bit to look behind him.  “Guys, this is my team.  Lieutenant Christopher Hayden.  Captain Brendan Quest.  And…”

 

“Major Dalton!” A third voice said as another man stepped out of the trees.

 

“And Lieutenant Liam Pierce,” Dalton finished.  He gestured behind him.  “And these are some friends who helped me out of the maze.  Teal’c, Baal, and…” he paused and remembered what he’d said.  They wanted to stay anonymous for now and while he trusted his people he knew the Colonel didn’t.

 

“Carter,” she finally said, ending his dilemma.  But he realized he wasn’t likely to stop calling her Colonel and the others would hear soon enough.  But it was an issue for another time.

 

Dalton watched as the two groups exchanged wary nods but couldn’t really blame either of them for their hesitation.

 

Quest was looking into the trees behind everyone.  “Major, where’s Captain Greene?”

 

“Oh, he…got left behind.  But don’t worry; I’m sure he’ll find his way back to us.  Now, are you guys okay?”

 

“Fine,” Pierce said.  “As long as we stayed here.”

 

“They are not permitting your return to the Stargate?” Teal’c asked.

 

“Oh, no.  We can leave.  We just can’t go any more that way,” Hayden said as he gestured in the direction the quartet had come from.

 

“How far is the Gate?” Carter asked.

 

“About four hours walk,” Dalton said.  “I guess since it’s safe here we’ll spend the night and leave in the morning?”

 

It was clearly a question.  He could hear it in his own voice and saw the realization on the rest of his team’s faces.  But he’d gotten used to deferring to the Colonel, following her leadership even though he’d never felt like he’d had to. 

 

Dalton had simply fallen into it, recognizing Colonel as a title he should show deference to, regardless of who she actually was.  In truth, it was a structure and familiarity he’d been desperate to grab onto after finding himself feeling hopelessly out of his depth. 

She hadn’t exactly made it easy though, not acting like any military office he’d encountered before. 

 

But he knew she’d saved them in that tunnel.  He very well might have made it to the end on his own but somehow he doubted it.  The thought of slogging through that dark, creature infested, seemingly unending expanse on his own curdled his blood even now when he was safe.  So he might have made it but if the coyotes had attacked him he would have died because the guns had been hers.  And if they hadn’t attacked he would have starved to death or been done in by dehydration, the hatch an obstacle he knew he wouldn’t have overcome given years.

 

So it wasn’t a blind trust.  It may have started that way but Dalton had always had a pretty good sense for people and, despite her temper, the Colonel had given him nothing but good vibes.  And now she’d proven herself capable by saving his life and that wasn’t something he was going to forget.  He couldn’t just turn that respect and building loyalty off now.

 

“Sounds good,” Carter said, breaking Dalton from his thoughts.

 

“Great,” Hayden said, “I’m looking forward to getting out of here.  I’ll take the first watch,” he said to Dalton and then turned to the stack of bags and pulled out a few blankets, handing them to Carter.  “Sleep well!”

 

Carter took the blankets and watched as the Lieutenant bedded down on the other side of the fire.  She glanced at Dalton.  “Is he always so…”

 

“Cheerful?  Exuberant?”

 

“I was going to say annoying,” Carter said.

 

Dalton laughed.  “So far.  But you’ll get used to him.  He and Pierce are quite a pair when they start going at it.  But it makes the long walks entertaining.”

 

Carter nodded and then pointed off a small distance to another section of the clearing that afforded some privacy.  “We’ll be over here.”

 

“See you in the morning,” Dalton said before tucking into his own bedroll.

 

---

Baal arranged the blankets to his satisfaction, using it mostly as a cover while he watched Carter very carefully and very slowly ease her jacket off.  He finally gave in when she winced for what seemed to be the hundredth time and shuffled over. 

 

“I’ve got it,” he said quietly as he sat behind her.  She dropped her arms without a word and a barely heard sigh.  That told him how much it was bothering her. 

 

After he eased the jacket off her left arm without moving the joint in the slightest he dropped his hands onto her shoulder and felt the painfully bunched muscles.  “What were you doing?”

 

“There was a ladder,” Carter said after a long pause.  “Had to jump and pull up.”  She groaned as he massaged a knot loose.

 

Baal hissed in sympathy as he imagined that.  When he suddenly felt her whole body tense he did as well, looking around.  “What?  You’ve been doing that since we got out of the maze.”

 

Carter turned her head slowly to find what was setting off her alarm bells.  “I feel like someone’s watching us.”

 

Baal looked around some more but didn’t see or hear anything out of place.  “Could be natives,” he said.  “They’ve obviously been keeping an eye on these guys.  Or it could be all the new people.”

 

Carter nodded but her eyes were searching out Teal’c.  She felt him before she saw him, coalescing out of the trees with their refilled canteens.  “What is wrong?”

 

Carter jerked her head at the surrounding forest.  “Can you take a look around?”

 

“Indeed,” Teal’c said as he put the bottles down.  His hand rested on her opposite shoulder for a second before he disappeared again.

 

“Feel better now?” Baal asked.

 

“I will when he gets back.”

 

“Hmm, and if you let me finish this,” he said as he resumed his massage.

 

---

Greene watched the reunion with a sneer that intensified when Dalton all but dismissed his absence.  He kept watching with keen interest as the trio settled themselves apart from the others.  That was good in his book.  They’d be more likely to talk about whatever they were hiding.

 

His interest piqued at the interaction between the one man and the woman but then he was scuttling away, hiding his trail while the big one headed into the forest.  He took great pains circling around, eventually finding old trails made by the natives to blend into.

 

He very nearly got caught a few times and finally had to resort to climbing a thickly branched tree.  But it left him with a good vantage point on the camp still close enough to hear their conversation.

 

Greene settled in to wait.

 

---

Teal’c woke in the grey predawn hours to see Lieutenant Pierce sitting by the barely glowing embers of the fire.  Teal’c offered a nod that was returned along with a smile before he turned his attention on the others.

 

Everyone else was still sleeping although he anticipated that Colonel Carter would awaken soon.  She had never reclaimed the ability to sleep for very long.  He was gratified to see that much of the strain that had been on her face the previous day was now gone.

 

She started to stir not long after, finally lifting her head from Baal’s shoulder and smiling at him.  He returned it and handed her a water bottle.

 

“How long do we intend to stay on Earth?”  His voice was quiet, just barely breaking the sanctity of the predawn stillness.

 

“Not long,” Carter said.  “I don’t want to get tied down.”

 

“How long will you require to perform the necessary calculations?”

 

“A couple days tops.”

 

“And then we will find ourselves in the same situation again,” Teal’c said.

 

Carter pursed her lips and nodded.  “Yes.  If you mean not knowing where and when we are and having to find out.”

 

“It seems a rather tedious process,” Teal’c mused quietly.

 

“Can’t be helped,” Carter said.  “And get used to it.  I don’t think we’ll go back another two centuries again.”  She looked at him, reading his expression easily.  “What are you really worried about, Teal’c?”

 

He shifted for a moment and then met her eyes.  “You,” he said plainly.

 

“Why?” Carter asked with furrowed eyebrows.  “I’m fine.”

 

“You are not,” he said, “And you will not allow us to assist you.”

 

“It won’t be like this every time, Teal’c.”

 

“Indeed.  It could be worse.”

 

Carter snorted.  “And I thought I was the pessimist.”

 

Teal’c leaned forward and caught her hands.  “Colonel Carter, I do not like the toll the last three days have clearly taken.” He touched her lips with a finger when she moved to protest.  “Do not claim it is not true.  We are neither blind nor stupid.”

 

Carter studied his face for a long time, seeing the concern that had seemingly become a staple on his face.  Then she glanced at Baal and saw a tension in him that wasn’t normally there when he slept.  And she realized it was because of her.  They loved her and by locking them out she was hurting them all.

 

“Fine,” Carter finally said.  “Fine.  I promise I’ll let you guys be there.  But you need to still give me space.  I can’t… feel like you’re suffocating me.”

 

“I am aware,” Teal’c said with a smile.  “And I concur.  But you must accept our persistence when it is serious.”

 

Carter smiled and leaned forward, pressing her forehead into his.  It was an entirely different kind of connection and relationship than she had with Baal.  Than she would ever have with anyone else.  It was weighty with decades of history and emotion, of shared experiences, and bonding in extreme times.  It was pure love and acceptance, trust, loyalty, and belief, all shot through with concern that he knew when to let loose and when to restrain.  It was a thousand different things she couldn’t put a name to, no matter how many languages she had in her head.  And it was her stalwart strength and grounding point, and Carter would love him for that until the day she died.

 

“Agreed,” Carter finally said as she pulled back.  “And thanks.”

 

Teal’c clasped her cheek for a moment and smiled, then inclined his head and stood to head to the fire.

 

“Same for me,” Baal’s quiet murmur intruded on Carter’s thoughts.

 

Carter leaned over him and tickled the underside of his chin.  “You possum you.  You heard that whole thing, huh?”

 

Baal opened his eyes and smiled.  “Most of it.  Thought I’d let Teal’c handle it and jump in if he needed me.  But he’s so much better at that than I am.”

 

Carter snorted and pushed herself up to work the kinks out.  The two of them would be the death of her.  She was sure of it.

 

---

Greene had kept himself awake in fits and starts throughout the night.  He was alert more by chance than planning when the conversation started. 

 

He very nearly fell out of the tree he was leaning over so far to catch every word.  Things like when we are and back another two centuries pricked his hearing and interest.

 

Greene leaned back as their conversation shifted focus.  His mind swirled with those phrases, thoughts turning over until he came to only once conclusion.

 

They were traveling through time.

 

And since they were heading back, it only made sense that they were from the future.

 

A smile stole over his face as he thought about that.  This was better than he ever could have anticipated.

 

---

“I never thought I’d be so happy to see a hunk of rock,” Pierce said as the Stargate came into view.

 

“No kidding.  I’ve been looking forward to going home for days,” Hayden said and then turned to Dalton.  “How about you, sir?”

 

“A shower,” Dalton said.  “A long one.  Hot.”

 

Carter watched as Quest started dialling and paused, overcome with a moment of doubt.  There was just a niggling feeling in the back of her head saying this wasn’t a good idea.  She’d gotten used to listening to those half-formed, indistinct thoughts and impressions.

 

“What?” Baal asked as he caught her look.

 

She glanced between him and Teal’c, both of whom clustered closer to hear.  “I feel like this is a mistake,” she said.

 

“Very well,” Teal’c said, “what is our logical alternative?”

 

“We could stay here,” Baal suggested.

 

Carter shook her head as she rubbed at her temple.  She didn’t want to stay on a planet that had proven inhospitable aliens.

 

“Or Gate… somewhere else,” Baal said.

 

Carter shook her head again.  That wasn’t any better of an option and they knew it.  “I guess we don’t have a choice.”

 

Dalton turned as the Stargate opened.  “You guys okay?”

 

Carter waved a hand and then started for the Gate.

 

---

Greene watched as they gathered around the Gate and cursed.  He’d hoped he’d get a chance on the way back.  That at some point, Dalton would wander off alone – anyone would wander off – allowing him to take action and delay them.

 

But they’d stayed close.  Dalton and his people clustered in the lead, the trio always together a few steps behind.  Greene had thought it was highly unnatural the way the trio had walked in synch for the entire four hours, like they were afraid something cataclysmic would happen if they were out of arm’s reach for even a millisecond.

 

He had to act now if he wanted to go back to Earth since he didn’t have a GDO.  So he pushed himself up and started a light jog.

 

“Hey!  Hey, Major Dalton!  Wait up!”  Greene watched as Dalton gave a visible sigh and turned, clearly preferring him to stay lost.

 

He stopped running within a few feet of the Gate and hunched over, huffing.  “Glad I caught up with you.  Wouldn’t want to be left behind,” he said, with just the slightest bit of emphasis.

 

Dalton gestured ahead of him.  “Of course not.  After you, Captain.”  He watched as they all filed through and then turned to Carter.  “It’ll be fine.  You’ll see.”

 

“Huh,” Carter grunted as she passed.  “I’ll reserve judgement.”

 

And then for the first time since seeing it destroyed twenty years ago, Carter and Teal’c stepped into Stargate Command.

 

---

Carter didn’t know what she’d been expecting.  A sense of familiarity, perhaps a tinge of nostalgia, or a longing to get back to their time even faster.

 

But none of that happened.  The SGC just seemed… strange.  Most of it had faded into obscurity into her mind, and although seeing the Gate room brought back memories and impressions, it was just odd.  It was concrete, grey, and cold.  Impersonal.  Distant.  It had been a long time since she’d lived underground and the mere thought of the miles of earth above her head triggered that familiar trapped feeling.

 

Teal’c’s hand landed on her back at exactly the right moment.  Carter felt her unease dying down as she remembered that he and Baal were there.  They were together and as long as that was true they’d be alright.

 

She turned her attention to a large, broad-shouldered man who was clearly the General and didn’t seem to be enjoying his conversation with Dalton.  Carter dismissed him for the moment and swept her eyes over the room, looking for changes or anything that could trip them up if they needed to move fast.  This wasn’t home anymore, it wasn’t a sanctuary.  It was hostile territory, as much as the planet had been.

 

The first thing she noticed was that there were an awful lot of permanent gun placements pointed at the Gate, accompanied by a large defence team.  Then she saw the security cameras, which had always been a reality of the SGC, but had seemingly reproduced like rabbits.  They were everywhere.

 

“That’s enough!”  The yell shattered Carter’s thoughts.  The General… what was his name?… was clearly done with Dalton.  “Get them sorted out and then get to the briefing room!” He said before quite literally stomping away.

 

Carter felt her eyebrow edge up.  He was not a happy camper. 

 

Dalton walked up the ramp to them, an apologetic look on his face.  “Sorry,” he said.  “You’ll have to hand over your weapons.”

 

Carter tensed and glanced at Teal’c and Baal.  She could tell they didn’t like that idea either.

 

“It’s standard procedure,” Dalton said.

 

I know that! Carter snapped in her head but she clenched her jaw to keep from saying it.

 

Dalton edged a little bit closer.  “It’s not going to go well if you refuse,” he uttered nearly inaudibly.

 

With a glance at Teal’c and Baal they disarmed.  Carter watched carefully and noted that, at least for now, their stuff appeared to be going to the same place as Dalton and his team’s.  That was good.  It meant that, likely, he’d convinced the General they weren’t anything special.

 

“Come on,” Dalton said.  “The General wants to hear about how we met.”

 

And what we can offer, Carter thought.  As they stepped through the door into the corridor a slight tingle passed over her skin, raising the hair on her arms.  She paused and looked at the others.  They’d felt it too.

 

An entirely different kind of tingle, the one that whispered danger and was triggered by the presence of watchful guards, kept her from saying anything.  As they trooped by the armed soldiers who seemed to line the hall Carter kept her eyes resolutely forward, all too aware of looks that burned into the back of their skulls.

 

As they mounted the stairs to the briefing room she couldn’t help thinking, somewhat

fatalistically:

 

We’re so screwed.

 

---

Teal’c listened with half an ear to the debriefing.  It seemed like, for once, it would actually be brief.  General Keegan was not interested in more than bare facts.  Who, what, where, when, how long.  Why didn’t seem to matter.

 

Major Dalton was relating their adventure in the maze, most of the detail lost under General Keegan’s withering stare.  So since the content wasn’t anything earth shattering, Teal’c turned his attention to the interactions between everyone present.

 

Major Dalton’s teammates were seated around him, clearly in support, nodding and adding non-verbal sounds in support of him.  Captain Greene was separate, sitting next to the General, his face tightened into a squinty-eyed glare that set Teal’c on edge.

 

As for himself, Baal, and Colonel Carter, they had taken seats next to Dalton’s team, as far from the General as possible.  Teal’c did not like the man and knew he was not alone in that assessment.

 

He turned his attention briefly to Baal only to see the Goa’uld was absorbing as much as possible without being obvious.  Colonel Carter had claimed a pad of paper and was scratching things out, symbols Teal’c recognized as the beginnings of the calculations they required to leave.  That was good.  The soon they were elsewhere, the better.

 

“So you’re like us?” General Keegan finally said, his voice clearly pitched to address Colonel Carter who Dalton had identified as the de-facto leader of the trio.

 

Carter glanced up and Teal’c feared for a moment that she wouldn’t respond correctly, having lost the conversation to her internal thoughts.  But she seemed to run something through her head and then nodded.  “Explorers through the Gate.  Yep.”

 

Keegan had an appraising look on his face as his eyes flicked over them.  “And you got thrown into this maze for…”

 

“Violating ancient, sacred taboos,” Carter said, pulling off the delivery perfectly since it had, in fact, happened to them on numerous occasions.

 

“I see,” Keegan said.  “And you’re here because?”

 

Carter shrugged a bit.  “Your Major Dalton seemed to think we might be able to help each other.  A little information exchange.  At the very least agreeing to lend a hand if we ever run into each other again.”

 

Teal’c was able to keep himself perfectly still and impassive as Colonel Carter lied through her teeth because of long practice.  He was certain she had never been this good at telling falsehoods, definitely not when it had been to the rest of SG-1, and he found himself slightly awed by her ability to weave a believable tale on command.  Even he could not detect a flicker in her eyes or a twitch of a muscle to give her away.

 

Keegan stared at them all in silence for several more long minutes.  His eyes seemed to be assessing them all, evaluating their very being.  It was a look Teal’c recognized and did not like.  “You’ll have to stay on the base.  Since Major Dalton dragged you home, he can look after your supervision,” Keegan said as he stood and headed for his office, closing the door with a slight bang.

 

“Well,” Dalton said as he turned to them after a slight pause, “how about a tour?” He clapped his hands together and smiled, keeping up appearances.

 

Teal’c obligingly gained his feet and tried to show an appropriate amount of interest for a facility he’d lived in for more than a decade.

 

---

Dalton shuffled them all into the nearest empty laboratory and closed the door with a sigh of relief.  He often got twitchy walking in the halls so he could only imagine how they felt.  He deliberately looked at all the cameras in the room and, after a moment to arrange themselves, the quartet formed a circle that obscured their faces.

 

“So, you have everything you need now, right?  You can do your calculations and do… whatever?”

 

“Yes,” Carter said.  “I’ll just need some time now.  A few days.”

 

Dalton’s tongue poked out as he thought that over.  “I guess we can find a way to say you’re giving us tactical information or….something the General will think useful.  But I’ll need to actually have something to show for it if you want days.”

 

“I can handle that,” Baal said.  “I’ll give him stuff so old it won’t be of any use but no one will know the difference.”

 

“Alright,” Dalton nodded.  “Can you do your calculations anywhere?  It’ll look a little weird to stay holed up in here.”

 

Carter brandished her legal pad.  “I’ve got everything I need.”

 

“Okay, well,” Dalton turned and grabbed another pad, thrusting it at Baal, “Here.  Start writing.  And, uh, how about a tour of the commissary?”

 

“Sure,” Carter mumbled but then stopped in her tracks as she remembered something.  “Oh, Dalton.  Why no infirmary trip?  Used to be standard procedure.”

 

Dalton paused as he processed her words.  “Oh, well.  Leaving the Gate room there’s a biometric scanner.  It takes readings and if someone’s a medical threat they don’t make it out of the room.”

 

Carter’s head snapped fully up at his words.  “What kind of readings?”

 

“Oh, I don’t… really know.  Why?  Is something wrong?”

 

Carter glanced at Baal, wondering if they’d detect the symbiote.  Perhaps not since it hadn’t been deemed a threat.  But there was the fact that all of them were now out of time and that showed up on scans; Baal had proven that with his initial discovery.  But would they show up on these scans?

 

“Colonel Carter?”

 

Carter grimaced.  “We might have just gotten screwed.”

 

Baal groaned as it came together in his head.  “You’re right.”

 

“What?” Dalton asked.

 

“There is nothing we can do now,” Teal’c said.  “There is little point in worrying over it.”

 

Baal nodded.  “Teal’c’s right.  The best thing is for you to do this,” he fingered her equations.

 

“I know,” Carter said.  “I just don’t like all the uncertainty.”

 

“Come on,” Dalton said with a wave, “food will make it better.  Trust me.”

 

---

General Keegan paged through the compute database of personnel, past and present.  There had just been something about those three people that had seemed familiar.  Something he couldn’t put his finger on but that triggered his instincts.

 

A knock on his door interrupted him.  “Come,” he called.

 

The door pushed open and one of the numerous scientists edged in, a likely incomprehensible readout in his hands.  “General, sir.  I needed to inform you.  Those three newcomers.  Their scans showed some interesting results.”

 

“Like what?” Keegan asked, bored with the conversation already.

 

“Well, sir,” the scientist shifted nervously, “one of them was carrying a symbiote.”

 

That piqued Keegan’s interest.  “They’re extinct.”

 

“There have been some indications that there are still Tok’ra, sir.  Just not any who will deal with us.”

 

Keegan closed the lid of his computer more forcefully than necessary.  “I know that!  What else?”

 

“All three gave off a highly abnormal… resonance, for lack of a better word.  It could indicate numerous things, but the most likely-”

 

“Cut to the chase,” Keegan said lowly.

 

Just as the scientist opened his mouth the office door banged open and Captain Greene flew in.  “General!  I have to tell-“

 

“What the hell was that!” Keegan exploded from his chair. “You were supposed to not come back with Dalton, not let him pick up three hitchhikers!”

 

“I know that, sir, but if you’ll let me-“

 

“I gave you a simple job and you fall flat on your ass, Greene!”

 

“They’re from the future!” Greene yelled, determined to not get chewed out for this.

 

Keegan stopped talking with his jaw hanging open.  He blinked.  “What?”

 

“I heard them talking, General, and those three are traveling through time.  From the future!  And Major Dalton knows, or at least knows something’s not quite right since he’s helping them cover it up.”

 

“Th-th…that,” the scientist started with a stutter, “would be consistent with these readings, sir.”

 

Keegan looked between them both, Greene’s smug expression and the scientist’s wide-eyed terrified look, but only saw his future, now infinitely better.  He’d end the war.  He’d be lauded as the man who single-handedly pulled the United States out of its biggest crisis in centuries.  He’d be a hero. 

 

“Arrest them.  Now.”

 

---

“So, where to next?” Hayden asked as he settled at the table beside Dalton and across from Carter.  “I realize the commissary is absolutely scintillating, but there’s gotta be something more interesting to see.”

 

“Yeah,” Pierce chimed in, “although it gets ten points for the dessert.” He waved his forkful of mousse to make his point.

 

“Most of the interesting stuff is off limits,” Dalton said.

 

“It has been a more than adequate tour,” Teal’c said as he shifted slightly in his seat.

 

“Thrilling,” Baal chimed in as he idly scrawled something else on his paper.  He glanced up for a moment and then focused on their tablemates.  There was an awful lot of hostility in the room and it was raising his hackles.  He knew the value of not drawing attention so he was determined not to aggravate anyone, as inadvertent as it might be.

 

The commissary doors banged open and their heads turned as one.  Carter finally pulled out of her thoughts and looked as well, tearing the top two sheets off the pad and folding them up.  “What’s this?”

 

“Nothing good,” Dalton muttered as he stood and eased in front of the others.  “What’s going on here?”

 

“You’re all under arrest,” the lead SF said as he gestured to Dalton, Carter, Teal’c, and Baal.

 

“What?  Why?”

 

The SF shook his head.  “I have my orders,” he said. 

 

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Carter uttered quietly as she eased out of her chair.  Teal’c and Baal followed her lead, the three of them edging slightly to the side to get a better view of the SFs.  Carter scanned them quickly and realized there were about a dozen in the commissary and spilling into the hall.  And there wasn’t another door so they were essentially trapped.

 

Hayden and Pierce had stood as well and stepped back from the table, their faces confused but their hands raised.  They weren’t involved in the situation yet and it would be better for all of them if it stayed that way.

 

The lead SF grabbed for Dalton’s arm but the Major sidestepped and tried to throw the SF off-balance.  Dalton was outclassed in terms of size and weight, though, and was soon slammed onto the table, his arms behind him.  Taking their cue from their superior, the rest of the SFs started to ooze their way through the room, closing in on the other three. 

 

Carter moved back, clearing space and keeping them all in her sight.  Teal’c was doing likewise on her left and Baal was moving to the side, positioning himself to get behind the SFs.

 

When the first SF got within striking distance, Carter swung one of the metal trays and caught him fully in the side of the head.  He dropped but two more took his place and the same trick wasn’t going to work again. 

 

One of them reached out and Carter moved but the second guy was there and got his hand around her shoulders and pulled.  Carter slammed her boot into his knee and felt his leg buckle as he made an odd noise.  But the first guy was back and they were big and muscular, and sometimes all the training and experience in the world wasn’t a match for being outnumbered and outclassed in terms of brute force.

 

A blow landed across her back and Carter crashed fully into Pierce, taking them both to the floor.  She used the split second to slip her folded papers into his pocket and tuck the remote into his jacket before she was yanked up and forced brutally to her knees as two pairs of hands captured her arms.  She caught a glimpse of Teal’c who was struggling to shake off four guys.  Baal was still loose, slipping between and around people, dropping them with judicious, knowing blows, but the sound of guns cocking ended that.

 

Carter felt a barrel press against her head and saw another against Dalton’s as the lead SF yelled, “Stop!  I will shoot them unless you submit.”

 

Baal stopped moving and she saw Teal’c’s body relax slightly allowing the two men he’d disposed of to reaffirm their grips.  The SF had hit the only tactic that would work right on the head.  Teal’c and Baal wouldn’t risk her even though she doubted they would actually shoot her – because something had triggered this, and Carter had a feeling it had to do with them.  And of everyone else in the room, Dalton was the only one Carter cared enough about to not want to see die; and she was sure they would shoot him since the Major had made it clear there was no love lost between him and the rest of the SGC.

 

As cuffs slipped over all of their wrists and they were pulled to their feet Carter’s thoughts whirled.  They were going to be separated; she knew it in her bones.  And after that she didn’t know what would happen. 

 

With the door looming closer and closer Carter twisted and looked at Baal and Teal’c, yelling at them in an old Goa’uld dialect.  She repeated it twice before she was hauled through the doors and they disappeared from sight.

 

---

Pierce held himself carefully still as Carter was pulled off him.  He still didn’t move once the four of them were dragged off, spitting curses and yelling their frustration.  As the normal sounds of the commissary settled around them Hayden’s face appeared in his view.

 

“You okay?”

 

“Yeah,” Pierce nodded.  “What was that about?”

 

Hayden glanced around.  “I don’t know.  But we should,” he gestured to the door.

 

Pierce nodded and got up carefully, holding his arms to the side of his body.  It earned him a curious look from Hayden.

 

“You okay?  You didn’t get hit or something?”

 

“No, no.” Pierce shook his head.  “Fine.  Let’s go.”

 

They stepped into the hall.  Pierce discreetly manoeuvred them to the closest washroom.  He closed and locked the door after ensuring it was otherwise empty.

 

“What the hell are you doing?” Hayden asked.

 

“Shh,” Pierce said as he looked around, checking one last time.  “There aren’t any cameras in here.”

 

“And?”

 

“And,” Pierce pulled his arms from his body and pulled out the object he’d felt Carter slip inside his jacket.  “The, uh,” he paused.  He’d heard the others call her Colonel in the scuffle, including Dalton.  “Colonel gave me this.”

 

Hayden peered at it as Pierce turned it over.  “What is it?”

 

“How should I know?  She obviously didn’t want them finding it.”

 

Hayden sighed and scrubbed at his face.  “What the hell is going on!”

 

Pierce shook his head.  “I have no idea.  But we need to do something.  There’s no reason for them to be arrested.”

 

Hayden paused as the implications of that statement reverberated between them.  “Are we sure that’s the best move?”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I mean,” Hayden gestured to the remote, “isn’t it… our duty to tell someone about this?  We’re talking about actively working against the United States military.  That’s treason.”

 

Pierce leaned against the wall and blew out a breath.  “In principle, I guess you’re right.  But… although we haven’t been here long, I think it’s obvious that things aren’t exactly the way they should be.  This is not the military I decided to join.  It’s…”

 

“Corrupt,” Hayden said quietly, as if fearing being overheard. 

 

“That might be too strong a word,” Pierce said.  “General Keegan has sanction to do whatever he needs to do.  But it’s all so… amoral.  And Major Dalton’s a good guy; the best one here.  He took us in, Chris, protected us from the rest of that.  I know he didn’t do anything to get arrested for.  And the Colonel and her people didn’t have the time to do anything.”

 

Hayden dragged a hand over his face and finally nodded.  “Alright, well, I don’t think we can trust anyone here,” he said.  “And we need to get that,” he nodded at the remote, “out of the mountain.”

 

“Agreed,” Pierce said.  “I know someone, a scientist.  Civilian.  She might be able to give us an idea what this is.  That will give us a place to start, at least.”

 

“And we’re going to need information.  They’ll probably be taken to the lower levels but we can’t just waltz in there without knowing what’s what.”

 

“How do we do that?” Pierce asked.  “We’re Lieutenants.  We can’t get that kind of intel legitimately.  And I don’t think we can do it illegitimately, either.”

 

Hayden grimaced.  “One problem at a time.  We shouldn’t talk here anymore.  We’ll meet at that diner tonight, okay?”

 

“Okay,” Pierce said as he dropped the remote into his tucked-in shirt.  The bulk of his jacket would hide it from view.  As long as no one hugged him or anything it would be fine.  He paused as he turned to the door.  “What about Captains Quest and Greene?”

 

Hayden grimaced as he thought that over and then shook his head.  “I don’t think we should tell them.”

 

“They’re our team, Chris.”

 

“I know that, Liam.  But whatever this is about has to do with the last mission.  Which means someone told the General something.  It wasn’t us and it wasn’t them.  That only leaves the Captains.”

 

Pierce thumped his head against the door but mumbled his assent.  This conspiracy stuff was a lot harder work than it seemed.  “You’re right.  We keep it between us.”

 

He eased open the door and tried to look casual as he started down the hall, Hayden following a few minutes later.

 

---

Baal paced his small cell in agitation.  He hated being locked up.  He hated it with a passion.  And he hated it even more because his hands were still cuffed behind his back.  He stopped and sat abruptly on the cot then rolled onto his back, bringing his hands in front.  That was better.

 

He started pacing again, turning everything over in his head, trying to figure out how this had happened and what would happen next.  He hadn’t seen Carter since she’d been dragged out of the commissary first, and he, Teal’c, and Dalton had parted company in the hall.  All the question marks bothered him.

 

That, and he was worried.  Worried how the others were being treated but especially about Carter.  Baal knew the mere thought of being a prisoner again, locked up and powerless, was anathema to her.  That, coupled with the tiny cell, and she had to being going nuts.

 

He forced his thoughts from going down that route, instead focusing on the last thing she’d yelled at them.  It was an extremely old dialect and he had to dig deep to remember even the most basic words.

 

First word is like work.  Works.  Also solution.  Second word meant machine, controller, device.  Last was like piercing.  Perhaps pierced.

 

Baal stopped pacing as he thought.  Solution, that was the equations.  Their solution to leave.  Machine was the time travel device.  That made sense.  It was the third word that baffled him.

 

Piercing.  Pierced.  To pierce something.

 

No!  To Pierce.

 

Baal chuckled lightly but had to admire her quick thinking.  She’d given it all to Pierce for safe-keeping.  That, at least, was one less thing to worry about.

 

He finally ceased pacing and settled onto the cot to wait for whatever came next.

 

---

Teal’c sat, outwardly calm and sedate, his eyes locked onto the cell door.  The chain of his cuffs chinked every so often with every minute shift of his body.

 

Other than that he was still, silent, the sound of his even breaths the only thing keeping him company.

 

He’d worked out Colonel Carter’s message.  It gave him little comfort.  Before he would need to know where the controller was he had to escape.  And the fact she’d deemed it important to tell them meant she expected they would not necessarily escape together.

 

So he sat and stared, contemplating the viability of rushing the door the next time it opened.

 

---

Carter tried very hard not to freak out.  She had to stay calm and somewhat rational if she was going to get out of this situation. 

 

But it was hard, with the walls closing in and the ceiling pressing down.  With the uncertainty, the concrete walls, the metal door, the tiny space that brought back memories she’d rather not revisit. 

 

And since her shoulder wasn’t up to the contortion necessary to get her hands in front of her she was even more vulnerable and defenceless.

 

They were still in the SGC.  But they’d gone down an elevator she’d never seen before, down for a long, long time, into levels that she was sure hadn’t existed before.  And nothing but rows and rows of doors that were clearly cells had met her eyes.  None of them had windows to give a clue of who or what they held, but the sheer number of secured rooms unsettled her.

 

Who, exactly, were they keeping under lock and key in that great a number?  Why did they have so many prisoners?

 

It made no sense and it did not bode well for an escape.  From what she’d seen this level was highly secured.  They couldn’t clobber a guard, steal a key card, and get out.  The elevators apparently needed to be triggered from above.

 

That meant that she, Baal, Teal’c, and Dalton weren’t going anywhere without help.  Assuming, of course, that they were all on this level with her.

 

Carter took a series of deep breaths, trying to calm her racing heart and still the tremors she could feel creeping up her arms, but knew it wouldn’t work.

 

She’d been right.  They were so screwed.

 

---

General Keegan watched the monitor in his office that displayed the feed from all four cells.  He pulled his eyes back to his computer after a moment, determined to answer the question of why they seemed so familiar.

 

He’d abandoned the personnel records.  Keegan was now flipping through dossiers of all the people of interest the SGC had ever encountered.  He stopped and leaned forward, paging back two screens.

 

“There you are,” he said quietly.  “Not a Tok’ra after all, but a Goa’uld.”  His eyes scanned down the screen.

 

Keegan leaned back as he navigated to another file.  The Goa’uld had become all but extinct over a hundred years ago, and Baal in particular was listed as deceased while others were simply assumed to be so.  He didn’t know very much about the Goa’uld in general, but he’d been required to familiarize himself with the basic history and kind of threats his command had dealt with in the past.

 

Which was why that other man had seemed familiar as well.  He was clearly Jaffa.  But what a Jaffa was doing outside of the fledgling FJN, and traveling with a Goa’uld and an apparently human woman to boot, he had no idea.  But then none of the pieces of this puzzle were falling together like they should be.

 

Keegan supposed his only recourse was to ask, but the whys and wherefores weren’t as important as what they could do for him now.  His curiosity would have to wait.

 

He picked up his phone and slapped a few buttons.  “My office, now,” he said and hung up.

 

His door opened moments later and a man stepped inside.  “General?”

 

“How long do you need to set up?”

 

“About half an hour, sir,” he said with enthusiasm after catching the General’s meaning.

 

Keegan stood.  “Get set up for this one,” he tapped one corner of the screen, “and I’ll join you when you’re ready.”

 

“Yes, sir!” The man said with a contained smile before scuttling from the office.

 

---

Baal remained sitting as the door opened and the General himself stepped inside.  He found that very interesting.

 

Keegan walked up to Baal, not that he had a lot of space to work with, and studied his face.  “You’re a Goa’uld,” he said without preamble.

 

Baal shifted slightly and raised an eyebrow, a habit he realized he’d picked up from Teal’c.  “That’s a matter of opinion.”

 

“It’s fact,” Keegan said.  “You’re a parasite.  You were a System Lord.”

 

Baal nodded.  Those things were all true.

 

“That makes you a Goa’uld.”

 

“Things change,” Baal said with a small shrug, “as they have around here.”

 

Keegan’s eyes narrowed.  “Meaning?”

 

“Meaning I was familiar with the old SGC, and I’d say it’s changed more than I have.”

 

Keegan crossed his arms.  “I don’t care about swapping history with you.  I don’t care about your opinions.  I know you three are from the future.  I want information.”

 

“Doesn’t everyone?  The answer to life, the universe, and everything?  Sorry, haven’t figured it out yet,” Baal said.  Then he leaned a bit closer and whispered, “Though I have been told it’s forty-two.”

 

Keegan’s face tightened in irritation but he otherwise did not react.  “Weapons.  Technology.  Planets we can find them on and the threats on them.  Techniques to enhance our own equipment.”

 

Baal leaned back against the wall and crossed his legs.  “You’ll find we aren’t very accommodating to people who hold us against our will.  It doesn’t exactly build trust.  And we’re not in the habit of helping corrupt little tyrants like yourself.”

 

Keegan laughed.  He actually laughed out loud and Baal found that slightly startling.  “I haven’t done anything wrong here, despite what you may think.  I have free reign to do whatever necessary to protect my country and its citizens.  That includes arbitrarily arresting and detaining people.  You wouldn’t find a government official out there who would be on your side, especially as aliens.”

 

“And your own people?  What about Major Dalton?”

 

“Major Dalton is an abnormality.  He was foisted upon this command by other parties and does not fit with our operation.  He’s being dealt with.”

 

Baal stayed silent as he studied the General.  This wasn’t an interrogation.  It was something else entirely; Baal almost felt like a sideshow, here for Keegan’s amusement.  That made him wonder what the General was actually planning to get his information, and who he was planning to do it to.

 

Keegan’s lips twisted into a sneer, an odd parody of a smile, as Baal’s silence lengthened.  He turned to the door but paused in his motion to rap on it.  “I do have one question,” he said and turned.  “What’s a Goa’uld doing traveling with a Jaffa and human?”

 

Baal pursed his lips.  It would seem an odd combination to anyone who had even an inkling of the history between the three groups.  “I hardly think you’d understand,” he said.

 

“Hm,” Keegan hummed, “I probably wouldn’t.  But I’ll get my answers.”

 

Baal leaned forward, wanting to keep Keegan here because he knew, he just knew, the General was leaving to do something far more sinister.  “Neither of them are going to tell you anything.”

 

Keegan knocked as Baal’s voice died out.  He turned in the door and met Baal’s eyes.  “What makes you think I have to ask?”

 

The door slammed shut and Baal was left to wonder what, exactly, that meant.

 

---

“Are you ready?” Keegan asked as he walked down the hall.  He paused when he noticed a darkening bruise on the man’s face.  “What happened, Victor?”

 

“He got in the way of an errant head butt, General.”

 

Keegan sighed as he turned to the second man in the hall.  “What are you doing here, doctor?”

 

“I was given permission to observe these sessions to get an understanding of how it all works, General.  I intend to utilize that privilege.”

 

“Just don’t get in the way,” Keegan snapped.

 

“Have I ever?”

 

Keegan muttered something under his breath and gestured for the cell door to be opened.  Victor went in first, wheeling a cart with an oval machine on it inside.  Keegan and the doctor had to stay outside and watch since there wasn’t any room between Victor and the monitoring equipment that had already been set up.

 

Keegan watched as Victor snapped the last components of the machine into place and settled everything to his satisfaction, nodding to signal he was ready.  Keegan crossed his arms and leaned against the doorjamb. 

 

“So, Carter was it?  Let’s get started.”

 

---

Carter hadn’t known what to expect when her door had opened and a man had come in backed by two SFs.  But she’d taken exception to being secured into a chair and fought back on instinct, landing a solid head butt.

 

Her anxiety had shot through the roof as the disgruntled man had gone about connecting what she recognized as medical equipment.  If whatever was going to happen next needed that then this might be worse than she’d thought.

 

She’d been left alone to stew after that and tug ineffectually at the cuffs on her wrists and ankles.  When the door had opened again she’d been satisfied to see an impressive bruise forming on the man’s face.

 

Then her eyes had landed on whatever he was wheeling in and something about the machine tickled a thread of memory.  But then it was gone and she was preoccupied with him fiddling with the device and hitting buttons on the equipment behind her.

 

“So, Carter was it?  Let’s get started.”

 

Carter had time to scowl at the General and then the machine was flicked on.  It emitted a pale blue light that landed directly on her forehead.  Carter braced unconsciously, expecting something.  When nothing happened she relaxed marginally but wondered what she was missing.  This wouldn’t get them anywhere.

 

“I want to know about planets that have advanced weapons on them,” Keegan said.

 

The beam seemed to shudder for a moment and then intensified in colour.  Carter lost the rest of the General’s words amidst the sensation that razor wire was being pulled through her brain.

 

---

“What’s wrong?” Keegan asked.

 

Victor was frantically turning dials, trying to lower the intensity, and pushing buttons all while shaking his head.  “I don’t know.  This isn’t supposed to happen.  The machine’s not designed to cause pain.  It’s… it’s like there’s some kind of mental block.  A wall.  I don’t understand.”

 

The doctor was riveted on the medical equipment behind Carter.  “Look at that,” he said quietly, his eyes glued to the display that indicated brainwaves and which areas of the brain were active.  “This is incredible,” he said and turned to Keegan.  “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

 

“About what?” Keegan said distractedly.

 

“About her brain function!  It’s through the roof!”

 

“It’s the machine,” Keegan said.

 

“No,” the doctor countered and bulled his way into the room, shuffling Victor off to one side.  He tapped a few buttons and brought up the records from before the machine had been activated.  “It’s not.  It’s pre-existing.”

 

Victor was trying to reach around for the machine.  “I have to turn if off!” He finally yelled.  “It could be doing irreparable damage.”  He finally contorted himself and slapped the correct buttons, shutting it down.

 

Carter slumped in the chair, unconscious with a trickle of blood running down her chin.

 

Keegan scoffed and stepped away from the door.  “If it won’t work with this one get it set up with one of the others!” He said to Victor.  “And then find out what went wrong!  It’s always worked before and I want to know why it didn’t this time.”

 

“Yes, sir,” Victor nodded vigorously as he hurriedly started dismantling everything.

 

The doctor was still staring at the medical scans until he realized Keegan was gone.  He ran to catch up.  “General!  General, wait!”

 

“What?”

 

“If you’re done with that one I’d like to take over,” he said.

 

Keegan turned.  “Take over what, exactly?”

 

“There are implications for that level of brain activity, sir.  At the very least it will be useful to get a better understanding of what those areas do.  We still know so little.  And this is an invaluable opportunity to examine what impact certain drugs have-“

 

Keegan raised a hand, not interested in the details.  “Do whatever you want, Doctor Friessen.  Just make sure she can still talk when you’re done.  I might come up with another strategy.”

 

Friessen smiled and nodded.  “Absolutely.”

 

Keegan turned and resumed his trek to his office, grumbling over his spoiled plans.

 

---

Dalton idly kicked his pillow around his holding cell, the utter boredom setting in and making him think it was some kind of tactic.  He hadn’t seen anyone since being arrested, wasn’t even sure how long ago that had been although it seemed like several hours. 

 

The only good thing was that he hadn’t been sent to the lower levels.  People went down there and often never came out.  And the ones who did… Dalton shuddered.  He didn’t even like walking through the hallway that held the express elevator to that section. 

 

All the stories, rumours, and partially substantiated facts made him even more worried for the Colonel, Teal’c, and Baal.  He was absolutely certain they’d been sent below and he was prepared to do anything to get them out.  But first someone had to actually come talk to him.

 

Dalton was in the middle of lining up his final, imaginary winning goal with his pillow cum soccer ball when the door clanged open.  General Keegan was standing there, his second in command Colonel Ritter and a few SFs behind him.

 

“Major Dalton,” Keegan said. 

 

“General,” Dalton turned to face them, his pillow-ball abandoned.  “I think I deserve to know what’s happened.”

 

Keegan pursed his lips and crossed his arms.  “You know I don’t have to tell you that, Major.”

 

“Yes, sir,” Dalton said, “but to my knowledge I haven’t done anything.”

 

“You conspired with foreign entities to deceive this command.  That could be taken as treason, Major.”

 

“I didn’t…I… but I don’t know anything!” Dalton protested.

 

“But you knew there was something going on and fabricated a story.  That’s enough,” Keegan said.

 

“They’re good people, General.  They helped me, saved my life.  And they don’t want to have anything to do with Earth.  Just let them go and you’ll never see them again.”

 

Keegan’s face transformed into a speculative expression Dalton was very familiar with.  “Are you trying to make deals, Major?”

 

Dalton hesitated for a second and then nodded.  “Yes.  Because if you’ve arrested them ultimately on my account, to get rid of me, then not only is that unfair, it’s an injustice.”

 

Keegan’s eyes squinted as he stared at Dalton and walked farther into the room.  “You really don’t know, do you?”

 

“Know what?”

 

“They’re from the future, Major Dalton.  And that is priceless.  So I’m willing to offer you a deal because of what you’ve given me.  Resign your commission immediately.  Walk away from the SGC, the military, and you’ll walk out of here a free man.”

 

“And if I don’t,” he asked even though he was sure he knew the answer. But he needed to hear it.

 

“You’ll join your new friends in the lower levels and be lucky if you ever see the sun again,” Keegan said.

 

Dalton turned away as he thought.  Being banished to the bowels of the SGC.  It was his worst nightmare made reality.  But could he abandon them to save himself?  Could he make that trade, that deal with the devil? 

 

He didn’t really know them, wasn’t beholden to them in any way.  They hadn’t even trusted him that much although he recognized now it may have been out of a desire to protect him.  And even though he hadn’t been the one to hand them over he felt responsible; because he’d suggested they come back, he’d said it would be okay and now everything was so, so wrong. 

 

But what could he do to help them, stuck in a tiny cell, under lock and key?  Nothing.  What could he do on the outside, stripped of his position and nothing more than a civilian?  Perhaps… something.  He still had friends in high places, the ones who had gotten him this posting.  They owed him, hell, they owed the Colonel since, in a roundabout way, they had some responsibility for this.

 

Dalton turned as he made his decision and met the General’s eyes. 

 

“Deal.”

 

---

Captain Greene kept an unobtrusive eye on the Lieutenants the rest of the day.  He knew that Dalton had built a fair amount of loyalty and camaraderie in a short amount of time, and Greene wouldn’t put it past the two young men to try something to help their leader.

 

So he’d taken it upon himself to watch them, hoping he’d catch them up to something even slightly untoward to impress the General even more.  As far as Greene was concerned those two had been contaminated by Dalton’s attitude.  They could have been excellent additions if they’d been put under the right officer from the beginning, someone who could make it clear how things worked, but Greene knew they were now firmly indoctrinated in the Dalton Way.  Which made them bad seeds; if they could be cleaned out along with Dalton it would be better for everyone.

 

Except they hadn’t done anything suspicious all day.  In fact they’d been model officers, diligently completing paperwork and filing mission reports, travelling idly between the commissary and rec rooms.  They hadn’t even gotten involved in any of the enthusiastic – meaning heated – discussions about the rather spectacular arrest.  Greene had crossed his fingers hoping for a fight he could pin on the Lieutenants.  But it had all been boring, menial, normal stuff. 

 

Greene wasn’t about to give up, though.  Although he was sure they were smart enough not to do anything too suspicious on base he was sure they’d slip up at some point.  He only mourned the fact that he couldn’t watch them off-base too.  That was an impossibility, though, because they lived in separate sectors of the city.

 

And all the while as Greene watched the Lieutenants, someone was watching Greene.

 

---

“Victor, I trust you’re really ready this time?”

 

“Uh,” Victor looked up and nodded, “yes, sir.  Although last time wasn’t really my fault.”

 

“It’s your machine, your project,” Keegan said.

 

“But it was totally unforeseen-”

 

“Tell me why it failed and I’ll absolve you,” Keegan said and then gestured to the door.  “Now let’s get on with this.  Why did you choose him?”

 

Victor sniffed and fiddled with his cart.  “A practical reason, sir.  I theorized the device likely wouldn’t work on a Goa’uld since it would target the human mind and not the parasite.”

 

“Which means you didn’t want to risk failure again,” Keegan concluded.

 

“Ahh, we- no, General, sir, I didn’t.  I know you want results.”

 

“Hm,” Keegan grunted.  “It will be an interesting experiment though.”

 

A small smile grew on Victor’s face.  “Yes, sir.  It will.”

 

Keegan nodded at the closest SF who pulled the door open.  Victor went through the same motions with Teal’c as he had with Carter and soon activated the machine.  He unconsciously held his breath as the General asked the same question as before.  Rather than a look of pure agony, this man only flinched slightly and grimaced as the beam quivered strongly.

 

Victor kept his eyes on the display, adjusting variables and power output, waiting for results.

 

“What’s happening?” Keegan finally asked when the visual display on the machine failed to show anything.

 

Victor glanced up at the subject as his brow creased.  “He’s resisting.”

 

“People can’t resist,” Keegan said.  “It’s impossible!”

 

Victor wisely didn’t say what he was thinking.  That after seeing their foolproof interrogation technique not only be resisted, but fail completely, that he was willing to entertain any notion.  And that it had failed with a perfectly ordinary human woman, when it had worked beyond expectations on thousands of others just like her, was the most puzzling of all.  “Let me adjust a few things,” Victor muttered as he started turning dials.

 

---

When his door had opened and they’d wheeled in an alien device Teal’c had taken comfort in the fact that this likely meant Colonel Carter and Baal were currently being left alone.  He didn’t know what to expect but prepared himself for anything.

 

As the beam of light hit his forehead he felt nothing but a slight warmth.  That changed into a tickling, burning sensation when General Keegan asked about advanced weapons.  It felt to Teal’c like the heat was seeping through his forehead and sliding through his brain, curling into every corner and seeping into every crease, searching.

 

Suddenly the tickling intensified to extreme levels.  Teal’c braced himself and forced his mind to centre against the feeling that something was being pulled out. 

 

And then he realized what this was.  A device designed to seek out information and memories in a person, guided by the questions asked of them.  He had a flash of memory of Vala Mal Doran’s ordeal with a similar device that had ripped information from her mind and left her with no memory; he remembered her saying it had been impossible to fight although she’d tried.  This wasn’t the same device, Teal’c knew.  But its function seemed similar enough.

 

As the pulling grew more insistent, then turned into tugging, then tearing, then ripping, all while the feeling of heat jumped up and up, Teal’c forced his thoughts elsewhere and drew upon his years of mental discipline.  He ignored the sweat dripping down his face, ignored the two men and their words.  He ignored everything except keeping control.

 

Teal’c forced himself into a meditative state, allowing the fire in his mind to recede like his physical aches did, and focused on better times.  He would endure and prolong this for as long as possible, because every minute they were with him was another minute the others were safe.

 

---

When Carter drifted back to awareness she had a moment she wished she’d remained unconscious.  She allowed herself some time to take stock, remembering the blinding agony like someone was trying to pull her brain out through her nose. 

 

Given the circumstances she decided she felt alright, but then she well knew that lying still on the floor wasn’t an indication of anything.  And that’s when Carter realized something important.

 

She’d changed locale.  She was on the floor, a decidedly soft floor compared to the concrete of her cell, and even without opening her eyes she had a sense that the room was quite a bit bigger.

 

Carter cautiously rolled from her side onto her back and pried her eyes open.  The room was white.  White and padded.  It was straight out of a mental hospital and somehow that chilled Carter more than waking up in her tiny concrete room would have.

 

She rolled her head slowly, pleased there was no pain, but disconcerted to realize she couldn’t find the door.  There had to be one, it was simply indistinguishable from the rest of the room.  Next she raised her comfortably freed hands, noted the reddening welts from the cuffs, and flexed her fingers just to make sure everything still worked.

 

That routine finished she pushed herself up to sit and wiped at the dried blood she could feel cracking on her chin.  Her hand grazed something else, hard and metallic, attached to the right side of her head at her temple, curving in a smile shape to end right in front of her ear.  Carter jiggled it but it didn’t budge at all, seemingly super glued onto her skin… or something.

 

“I wouldn’t recommend that,” a man’s voice said out of nowhere.

 

Carter didn’t bother looking around for him.  He hadn’t entered and she’d already noted that there weren’t any windows – that she could see.  He could be watching via a camera for all she knew.

 

“It’s a medical device,” he continued, “it will transmit your brain activity, vitals, and a variety of other things to me.  It doesn’t rip out.  Well, I suppose it might, with enough effort, but as I said – I wouldn’t recommend it.”

 

Carter leaned against the wall but kept her silence.  She wasn’t participating until she had a better idea of what was going on.

 

“Nothing to say?  That’s okay,” the man continued.  “Unlike with the General I don’t require you to say a word.  You’re providing me with a singular opportunity to advance medical science.  I hope you’ll appreciate that.”

 

There was a slight hiss and Carter turned her head to see a portion of the wall swing outwards, revealing a man in a white coat who she assumed had been the one speaking.  He had a kindly face considering he’d just said he was going to use her for medical experiments.

 

Carter shuffled to her feet as he advanced.  “Please, don’t fight me,” he said.  “You’re going to lose anyway.”  As he said that two men stepped in beside him, not dressed as SFs but just as imposing.

 

“I’m not the docile type,” Carter rasped at him as she sidestepped.

 

Friessen pursed his lips and rifled in his pockets.  He pulled out two rather large pre-filled hypodermic needles and then nodded at the orderlies. 

 

Carter sized them up as they advanced and decided the one on the left looked a little unbalanced.  She picked her target on his upper chest and swung on instinct then watched as he tottered and fell.  She zipped into the space he’d opened up but stopped as the door suddenly swung closed.

 

“I forgot to mention,” Friessen said with a smile, “As long as you’re wearing that device you can’t walk through the door.”

 

The second orderly got his hands on her and Carter flung her head back.  She heard something break, likely his nose, but his hold remained tight.  She tried to wrestle loose but didn’t make any headway.  When the first orderly regained his feet and joined in they managed to press her into the floor and immobilize her as Friessen moved in.

 

She felt the sting of the needles in her arm and then the rush of drugs.  Carter was too preoccupied by thoughts of what the hell this would do to her to think of retaliating as the orderlies cautiously released her.

 

Screwed ten ways from Sunday she thought as the door hissed closed.

 

---

“I don’t know what you’re expecting from me,” Cecilia Martin said as she slid the remote back across the table to Pierce.  “There’s nothing on it to indicate what it does.  A few buttons, some numbers on a display, that doesn’t tell me anything.  It could be a really advanced thermometer for all I know.”

 

Hayden sighed and sipped his coffee.  “You don’t have any ideas?”

 

“Sorry,” Cecilia said, “I wish I could help.”

 

“Well how about this?” Pierce asked as he pushed two creased sheets of paper towards her.

 

Hayden leaned forward to get a better look.  “Where’d you get that?”

 

“It was in my pocket,” Pierce said.  He glanced at Cecilia but she was absorbed in the writing.  “You remember that pad the Colonel was carrying around?  It’s whatever she was working on.”

 

“I remember,” Hayden said.  He flicked his eyes to Cecilia.  “So?”

 

Cecilia had a befuddled, partly astonished look on her face.  She shook her head very slowly, as if she moved any faster everything would vanish.  “I don’t know what to tell you.  This is… beyond anything I’ve ever seen.  I don’t even recognize some of these symbols.  And the ones I do,” she shook her head again.  “They don’t make sense.  This is math on an entirely different level.”

 

Pierce leaned towards her.  “Come on Cecilia.  Anything would help.  You must see something you know.”

 

She glanced at him briefly.  “I’d really like to help you, Liam, but I just…” She trailed off and squinted at the writing some more, flipping between the two sheets a few times.  “It’s calculating position.  Space down to seven points.  No, eight,” she said as her forehead creased.  “But that… that’s impossible.”

 

“What?” Hayden asked.

 

“The eighth point… I can’t make this whole section out,” she gestured to three-quarters of the second sheet, “but this here seems to indicate calculations for time.”

 

They were silent for a long moment.  The Lieutenants exchanged looks while Cecilia stayed absorbed in the equations.

 

“Time,” Pierce said slowly, extending its syllables as if testing the word out.

 

Hayden nodded as the beginnings of understanding dawned on his face.

 

“Yes,” Cecilia said, not realizing they weren’t talking to her, “But it’s impossible.”

 

Pierce and Hayden knew it wasn’t, though.  Despite being newbies there were certain stories that got around the SGC to everyone.  The most spectacular, outrageous, and daring.  And among those tales was one that talked of time travel.

 

Pierce scooped up the remote and pulled the papers gently from her hands.  “Thanks, Cecilia.  We owe you one.”

 

She seemed confused by the abrupt change but smiled gamely and nodded.  “Sure, any time Liam.  It’s always a pleasure.”

 

Pierce smiled once more and then they headed for the door.  He and Hayden walked for awhile down the rubble-strewn street, pulling their coats close against the vicious wind and cold air that always persisted because of the perpetually overcast sky.

 

“Is it possible?” Hayden finally asked.

 

“Anything’s possible,” Pierce said with a wondering tone.

 

Hayden blew out a breath.  “It doesn’t get us anywhere, though.  Doesn’t help.”

 

“No, but maybe now we know what General Keegan’s after.  Imagine talking to someone from another time, Chris, and everything they could tell you.  Imagine what we could have avoided here!”

 

Hayden looked around at the darkened streets and ruined buildings and tried to imagine that world.  He couldn’t, though, because this was all he’d ever known.  The war had broken out long before he’d been born, the United States invaded and fundamentally changed.  It had ceased being a superpower as it was bombed, invaded, and overrun by every country that had ever held a grudge.

 

Cities had crumbled, populations had shifted, the economy had been utterly destroyed, and it had finally been an ironhanded leader and martial law that had reclaimed the US’s borders.  The war still raged though, overseas and in the air and water around the States, a constant siege by people determined to get what the US had.

 

The Stargate and all the treasures it could deliver.

 

Hayden had grown up hearing about the Stargate, about how the people who stepped through it and the things they brought back had ultimately saved them.  No one had ever mentioned it had been the Stargate that had started it all, though, its disclosure ill-timed and badly executed, making every nation feel like they’d been cheated and that the balance of power had undergone an irrevocable shift.

 

Their damnation and their salvation, all wrapped up in one giant stone ring. 

 

And that was the reason men like Keegan had carte blanche to do whatever it took.  Men like him had saved them in the past and so everyone was expecting men like him to keep saving them, even though it had stopped being the best method years ago.  It would only beget more violence.

 

It was the only life Hayden had ever known and any other possibility seemed nothing short of a fantastical fairytale.

 

“So what do we do now?” Hayden asked.

 

“Now you’re coming with me,” a voice that wasn’t Pierce’s answered.

 

They froze and turned to see Captain Quest step out of the shadows, his expression set and grim.

 

---

General Keegan looked up and rubbed his eyes when he heard his door open.  It was late in the evening, he was tired, and he was frustrated with the lack of progress that had been made with his newest additions.  He’d handed the interrogation over to Colonel Ritter and now here the man was, the expression on his face not as triumphant as Keegan would have liked.

 

“Well?”

 

Ritter hefted the detachable storage device of the memory machine.  “We finally got a fair amount of data.”

 

“But?”

 

Ritter hesitated as he moved to hook the hard drive into Keegan’s screen.  “But Victor doesn’t seem optimistic that it’s what we want.”

 

Keegan leaned back in his chair to watch.  The screen was blank for a long time.  And then it flashed with a warehouse, a woman with long black hair holding a weapon on another man with glasses as he talked her into putting the gun down.  It flickered and another image resolved, the same people again along with another woman who, after a brief pause, Keegan recognized as Carter, sitting in the SGC commissary.  The picture changed again, a grey-haired man appearing, a bald General, all cycling through different parts of the SGC and outside, in houses, forests, and on streets.

 

After more than ten minutes of the same Ritter shut it off in disgust.  “Useless,” he muttered.  “Absolutely worthless.  I’ll try again, sir.  He obviously has a great deal of mental control to direct his memories in this manner.”

 

Keegan nodded absently and barely noticed as Ritter left his office.  The General leaned back in his chair, his fingers steepled at his chin, and thought.  It hadn’t been as useless as Ritter had thought.  The Colonel was young, promoted through valour and exceptional performance in combat.  At thirty and change he wasn’t old enough to really remember the years before the war.  But the General was and in those memories he’d recognized an Earth that predated the United States’s collapse.

 

He swivelled to face his computer, poised to review the personnel records again because that was obviously where the answers were, until he remembered he’d been through almost all of them.  He pushed to his feet and headed decisively for the elevator and level seventeen where the records were kept.  The oldest files had never made the transfer to the new computer system and were sitting in hard copy in dusty old boxes, untouched for decades.

 

Until now. 

 

---

Teal’c opened his gummy feeling eyes and stared at the ceiling.  He wasn’t sure how long he’d been lying here since the session had ended.  He’d lost all sense of time, of the outside world as he burrowed deeper and deeper into his meditation to avoid the memory machine.

 

His entire body felt stiff and wrung out, like he’d just fought a three day battle and hadn’t quite won.  Teal’c’s head pounded the most, an incessant banging inside his skull that made him want to just slip away again. 

 

Teal’c knew he’d never be able to fully understand Colonel Carter’s absent periods or her physical reality of constant, chronic pain throughout her body and never-ending headaches.  But he thought the last several hours – or however long it had been – and his current condition was probably as close as he would get.  As he pushed himself up, determined to consume the small amount of food and water that had been left, his respect for her grew some more.

 

He was fairly certain he hadn’t told them anything useful.  Even though Teal’c didn’t actually have that much future knowledge there was always the chance that this changed timeline hadn’t included many of the planets the original SG-1 had visited.  So he’d forced himself to remember benign events and planets, places that had simply held innocuous rocks for Daniel Jackson and nothing more interesting for Colonel Carter than plant and soil samples.

 

It was his hope that by denying them what they wanted they would become even more interested in what he possibly held and continue with him.  Both Baal and Colonel Carter had knowledge that would be far more interesting to General Keegan, and although Teal’c did not doubt their strength, he felt certain he had more mental discipline than both of them – if only because they had volatile tempers which by its very nature undermined mental control.

 

He settled himself on the middle of his cot and slipped into an entirely different kind of meditation, meant to calm and centre him while replenishing his resolve.

 

---

Carter’s stomach heaved one last time.  She choked and groaned, her grip on the basin that had emerged from the wall the only thing keeping her upright.  When her arms started shaking, both from the tremors in her hands that had kicked into high gear as her anxiety grew and plain exhaustion, she allowed her grip to slacken and crumpled to the floor.

 

She curled up, trying to relieve the cramping in her stomach, and wished she could just blank out.  But it never seemed to happen in times of high emotion or stress, like her brain knew it not only wouldn’t be convenient but could be downright dangerous.  But this was one time Carter dearly wished for that click to sweep her away.

 

This was round three.  The first had set off seizures and she almost wished for that back.  She didn’t remember them and had simply been left feeling tired.  The second round hadn’t done much that she’d been aware of.  This one was by far the worst.  Between the vomiting and sweat that was running off her in streams she was starting to worry about dehydration.

 

Carter curled tighter around another cramp and squeezed her eyes closed, deciding just because her brain wouldn’t take her away there was no reason she couldn’t do it herself.  So she focused, tunnelling down in her mind, narrowing herself down to one spot and eventually felt herself sucked into that familiar, calming black landscape.

 

Escape – at least as much as possible.

 

---

Something beeped and Friessen turned to the screen, watching as Carter’s brain activity suddenly changed drastically, different areas lighting up like supernovas and others going dark.

 

He leaned closer, staring and waiting to see if it would change back or if this was permanent.  When nothing happened he scratched his chin.  “Hmm,” he hummed under his breath, his interest piqued.

 

So far his experiments had been disappointing.  She’d had strange, oddly adverse reactions to most of his cocktails so far.  They’d caught him off-guard so he’d drawn some blood and was starting to see why.  She had blood chemistry unlike anything he’d ever seen including a heavy metal another scientist had identified as naquadah. 

 

Friessen had started some investigating then, thinking it an odd occurrence, and after taking some blood from both her companions – and what an experience that had been – and finding the same metal, he’d dug a little deeper.  It had taken a little finagling on his part to get the General to allow him to read old SGC reports, but a reminder that Friessen had the same sanction for his medical research that the General did had been enough of an incentive.

 

And the only conclusion he’d been able to come up with was that, like her companion Baal and the other Goa’uld and Tok’ra he’d read about, at some part Carter had been a host.  But that had made even less sense to Friessen, because the Goa’uld were supposed to be dead and the Tok’ra hadn’t had contact with humans in centuries. 

 

Ultimately, Friessen had decided it was immaterial to his work and moved on, simply making a report to the General.  He’d just worked out what he thought the reaction was, and thus eliminated other drugs she wouldn’t tolerate, but this new development intrigued him.

 

He grabbed his penlight and headed for her room.  She was unresponsive when he stepped inside which was odd.  She normally looked at him, moved away, made some kind of effort to be a pain in his ass, if only to say something snarky.

 

Her face was slack, her eyes open and vacant, her body somewhat rigid.  Her pupils didn’t respond to light and she gave no indication she was even aware of his presence.  Friessen sat back on his heels and studied her.  It was a classic case of catatonia, only her brain function didn’t hold with that assessment.  Something else was going on, something he was sure was linked to her astonishing level of brain function.

 

If he wanted to figure it out, though, he couldn’t do it with her like this.  He needed to see her reactions, talk to her, be able to observe her behaviour.  In this state she was about as informative as a rock.

 

Friessen headed back to his lab, mulling over what it would take to interfere with, or block altogether, her ability to so thoroughly withdraw.

 

---

Keegan pushed open the records room and flipped on the light.  He headed down the rows and rows of boxes, trying to decide where to start.  There were a lot of records and he’d already flipped through everything that was on the computer system.  He didn’t relish the thought of having to go through all these to find what he was looking for.

 

He stopped, staring at the floor, as he noticed distinct footprints.  These rooms were never used.  There was no point.  He knew no one had been in them since the last boxes had been added – at least, no one had a legitimate reason to be in them.

 

Feeling like everything was about to get more interesting he followed the footprints to a shelving unit and then studied the boxes.  It didn’t take long for him to find the one that had clearly been opened.  There was no dust on the lid that sat slightly crooked, as if someone had closed it hurriedly.

 

Keegan took down the box and walked to a table at the side of the room.  The moment he opened the box he knew several files were missing.  He flipped through the rest, trying to get a sense of what was gone, and realized these were some of the earliest files.  The original personnel, the people who had pioneered Gate travel and established the SGC.

 

He had no way of knowing what was missing, though, unless there were records somewhere of what each box was supposed to hold.  Keegan took the whole thing back to his office, determined to search out a lot number and cross-reference to find what was missing.

 

Whatever was going on could be too important to not investigate properly.  On his way back he swung by the security room, requesting all the video from outside and inside the records room over the last forty-eight hours.  If there was someone else in his SGC working against him he was damn well going to know about it.

 

---

Hayden and Pierce sat rigidly next to each other, staring across at Captain Quest who had yet to say another word since collecting them.  They’d relocated to the Captain’s house and were occupying his living room with as much presence as his furniture.

 

Quest finally cleared his throat.  “I assume you’re trying to help Major Dalton.”

 

They nodded.  “And the Colonel, Teal’c, and Baal,” Hayden said.

 

“Major Dalton resigned this evening.  He’s out of the SGC, the military, in exchange for his freedom.”

 

The Lieutenants were momentarily speechless.  “But… he can’t… he wouldn’t do that!  He wouldn’t leave the rest of them in there!” Pierce said, highly indignant.

 

“So you’re still interested in helping?” Quest asked.  They nodded.  “Good.  Because this is complicated.”

 

Hayden snorted.  “No kidding.  Time travel and all…”

 

“You know about that?”

 

“Ye –“ Pierce paused, a suspicious look on his face.  “How do you know about it?”

 

Quest reached into his jacket and pulled out a stack of folders.  He pulled the top two off and handed one each to the Lieutenants.  “Take a look at those.”

 

Hayden shot Quest a confused look before gently pulling his file open.  The pages felt old and delicate, like they would disintegrate in his hands.  He scanned the top sheet, seeing it was a personnel record, but froze when his eyes landed on a picture.  “That’s Teal’c!”

 

Pierce looked over his shoulder and squinted.  “Yeah.  Without hair and younger but… definitely him.”

 

Hayden flipped through a few more pages and finally found what he was looking for.  “This is from 1999!  He was an original member of the SGC!”

 

Pierce opened his file, suddenly curious.  His eyes were drawn to the date first, confirming it was from the same time as Hayden’s file.  He skipped the rest of the information and went straight to the picture, staring for a long moment before it clicked.  “Christ,” he muttered softly.

 

Hayden leaned closer to see.  “What?”

 

“It’s the Colonel,” Pierce said.  “When she was a Major.  And…” He trailed off, his training keeping him from saying anything that might sound disrespectful.

 

“Yeah,” Hayden said in a very subdued manner, comparing this picture with the image he had of the Colonel.

 

Pierce flipped through the rest of the file and found himself with more questions.  “SG-1,” he said.  “The flagship team.  But… if they were all so important, if the Colonel made the dialling program and all, why don’t we know anything about them?  Shouldn’t we?  I mean it’s pretty important.”

 

Quest nodded at the files.  “Keep reading.”

 

Hayden found it first since he was ahead.  “It says Teal’c disappeared early in 1999.  He was just suddenly poof, gone, without a trace.”

 

“Same here,” Pierce said.  “They looked for weeks but finally…” he paused, looking for a name, “General Hammond declared them MIA.”

 

“And their team got some replacements and resumed their normal schedule,” Hayden said and then looked at Quest.  “Who was the rest of the team?”

 

Quest opened two more folders and flopped them onto the table.  “Colonel Jack O’Neill and Doctor Daniel Jackson.”

 

“What happened to them?”

 

Quest laid his finger on Doctor Jackson’s file.  “After their first mission back, the same one they were supposed to go on the day after Colonel Carter and Teal’c disappeared, Doctor Jackson developed schizophrenia.  That’s the incident you can thank for our monthly psych evaluations.”

 

“What happened?” Pierce asked.

 

“He lived out the rest of his life in a state institution,” Quest said and then shifted his finger to Colonel O’Neill’s file.  “As for him, well, he didn’t take losing the last member of his team well.  Awhile later he got trapped on a planet that was hit by a meteor storm.  The Gate was somehow lost.  When allies of Earth finally got around to checking it out almost a year later he’d made a new life.  Apparently he was tired of losing people.  Never went back to Earth and, we presume, died there.”

 

The trio were silent for a long moment as they all gave the lives of people long dead their due consideration.  Pierce finally shifted and met Quest’s eyes.  “That still doesn’t tell us how you know any of this.  How did you figure it out?”

 

Quest pressed his fingers to his lips.  “This is where it starts to get complicated.”

 

“It wasn’t before?” Hayden asked.

 

A small smile touched Quest’s lips.  “I’m at the SGC for the same reason Major Dalton is.  I was placed there by people who think it’s time for things to change.  Major Dalton was the bait, if you will, and I’m the weapon.  It was my job to watch for the people doing Keegan’s dirty work so we can get them all at once and to protect Dalton’s back, to a point at least.”

 

“So you knew Greene was dirty!” Pierce said.

 

“Yes,” Quest said with a nod, “I suspected.”

 

“So on that planet, why were you so… aloof, knowing the Major was off with someone likely to kill him?”

 

“Because if Greene came back saying he was dead we’d have the proof against him.  I would have incapacitated him and looked for Major Dalton.  But running off after him might have tipped my hand.”

 

“But he could have been in trouble!”

 

“Major Dalton has enough information about what’s going on to know he had to keep his eyes open for people like Greene.  I was never there to baby-sit him, Lieutenant.  He’s capable of taking care of himself.”

 

Hayden huffed out a breath as he realized he wasn’t going to win the argument.  And it didn’t matter, anyway.  The planet was over and done with and they had bigger problems now.  “So, about this,” he gestured to the files.

 

“I’m privy to a lot more information because of the people I work for, Hayden, including the SGC’s history.  I caught on that they were from Earth – that the Colonel was at least – recognized Baal, and knew Teal’c was a Jaffa.  It didn’t take long to narrow things down after that.”

 

“What do you mean recognized Baal?”

 

Quest slapped the last folder onto the table.

 

Pierce flipped it open and leaned forward to read.  “He’s a Goa’uld?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Pierce and Hayden exchanged a look.  Finally, they looked back at Quest.  “What’s that?”

 

Quest sighed.  “The original enemy.”

 

“Oh,” Hayden said as his eyebrows scrunched together in thought.  “But… then wouldn’t he and the Colonel and Teal’c know each other?  Shouldn’t they sill be enemies?”

 

“You would think so,” Quest said.  “But there’s clearly something else going on here.”

 

“Wait,” Pierce raised his hands, “Stop.  When the Colonel and Teal’c just… poofed… are we saying that’s when they travelled through time?”

 

“It’s the only explanation for them being here, now,” Quest said.

 

“Okay, sure.  But why?  How?  Where… when?… did they go?  Why are they only going back now?”

 

Quest shrugged.  “How should I know?  You need to ask them, Lieutenant.  But for now it doesn’t matter.  What we need to do is get them out of there, because if General Keegan gets information about the future, or time travel itself, we’re going to have a problem.”

 

“Never mind the fact that they didn’t do anything to deserve being locked up,” Hayden said.

 

“That too,” Quest agreed.

 

“Fine, but how?  Do you really expect us to be able to break them out?”

 

“No,” Quest said and smiled a bit, “but you have that device of theirs, right?”

 

They nodded.

 

“Then all we have to do is break in.  Once they have their remote they should be able to just… poof…again.”

 

“One problem,” Pierce said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the pages.  “I don’t think the Colonel finished her calculations.”

 

Quest sighed and rubbed his face.  “I guess we’ll need to modify the plan then.  I can get us into the lower levels.  I have the equipment that will keep anyone from following us for awhile.  Maybe an hour, two tops.  If that isn’t enough time for the Colonel to finish then we’ll need to prepare to hold our position to buy her enough time.”

 

“Are you suggesting storming the lower levels and then using it as a… safe haven?” Pierce asked.

 

“I guess I am.”

 

“Well what about these friends of yours?  Your all powerful employers?  Surely they can help?” Hayden said.

 

“Maybe to a degree.  But I’m sort of on my own here.  They won’t acknowledge me until this is over.”

 

“So we’re essentially left to sink or swim?” Pierce clarified.

 

“Essentially.  But we’ll be fine,” Quest said with a small smile that faded slowly.  “There’s one other snag.  The people I work for will protect me.  I won’t suffer any consequences for this.  But you two,” he shook his head, “I can’t promise anything.”

 

Hayden and Pierce exchanged a look and nodded at each other.  “We’ll risk it,” Hayden said. 

 

“Okay,” Quest said and stood.  “I’ll make some enquiries, gather some additional supplies.  We should meet back here tomorrow night.  I know I don’t have to tell you not to say a word about this to anyone.  Don’t act strange on base, don’t change any of your normal behaviour.  If you tip us off we won’t get another chance.”

 

“We know,” Pierce said as they stood.  “What about Captain Greene?”

 

“He’s watching you,” Quest said, “I know because I’ve been watching him.  Just don’t do anything wrong, or that could be construed as wrong, and he can’t touch you.”

 

“Yeah, but what about him?  He’s not going to get off, is he?”

 

“No,” Quest said as he ushered them to the door.  “He won’t.” As they headed down the porch he called one last warning after them.  “Remember: normal is the watchword.”

 

---

Baal shifted his arm and resettled his back against the wall.  He was going nuts with the tedium.  By his count it was edging into the eighteenth hour since their arrest.  He hadn’t seen anyone since that doctor had come in and demanded a blood sample.  Baal wasn’t having any of that, though, a myriad of reasons they could want his blood – all of them bad – running through his head.  But they’d gotten it in the end, the SF taking a sadistic pleasure in breaking Baal’s collarbone.

 

So that was slowly mending and meant pacing wasn’t really something he could do.  Not that pacing had any entertainment value anymore.  He remembered Carter telling him once that she often thought about some theory that had been banging around in her head to fill the long hours of imprisonment – when not thinking of a way to escape.

 

He’d imagined ever possibility for escape, not that there were many, and was trying to turn his mind to something else.  It wasn’t working though, because he was worried about them and he was pissed and he was, quite simply, bored to tears.  It had been a long time since Baal had done any scientific theorizing without Carter at his side and he was finding himself unenthusiastic about the whole process without her rapid-fire input.

 

He’d resorted to, of all things, whistling.  Baal had composed a few tunes already and was mulling over the possibility of words to accompany them.  It wasn’t useful at all but it was better than going completely mad; although that would give him and Carter something else in common.

 

Baal had even found himself wishing for a host he could talk to.  But all he had was his cloned body with no independent consciousness of its own.  No host, no conversation.

 

He sighed and shifted his arm again, then softly started signing the first set of lyrics he’d composed.

 

---

Friessen waited for the latest blood test to come back.  He’d devised a way to inhibit her mental retreat and was now waiting for the drug he’d administered to completely flush her system.  He wanted a clean slate to start fresh.  And it should be just about done.

 

The computer spat a sheet of paper out and he scooped it up.  Friessen smiled and grabbed his newest cocktail, heading for the cell.  She was still in the same place, hadn’t moved an inch, hadn’t even blinked.

 

He slowly forced her arm to uncurl, frowned at the needle marks, and switched to the other arm.  Friessen watched her face as he injected the drugs and sat back.  If it was going to work it would be fairly rapid. 

 

After several minutes her body took on tension, her hands twitched, and then she shuddered and blinked.  She was clearly disoriented and fighting to gather her bearings.  He took advantage of her distraction to administer his next experimental mixture without a fight.

 

She flinched when he reached for her arm and hissed as he depressed the plunger but made no other move.  Friessen stood and backed off, watching a little bit longer to be sure he’d gotten it right.  Her most adverse reactions had come minutes after being injected, like some kind of severe allergic reaction.  When nothing unexpected happened he headed back to his lab.

 

Things were going to get interesting.

 

---

Dalton slid into the booth at the restaurant and ordered a coffee while he waited.  Ten minutes later a man took the seat opposite him.

 

“It sounded urgent,” he said.

 

Dalton nodded.  “It is,” he said.  “Things have fallen apart, Rick.  Just… hit the fan.”

 

Rick looked around surreptitiously and leaned closer.  “Meaning?”

 

“I resigned last night.  The SGC, the army.  Everything.”

 

“Why?  What happened?  What were you thinking, John!  We put you there for a reason.”

 

“I was thinking they were going to lock me up and throw away the key otherwise.  I was thinking some friends of mine, good people who don’t have anything to do with this, already were locked up because of me.  And I was thinking being free would let me help them.”

 

Rick sighed and dragged his hand over his hair.  “This wasn’t in the plan,” he said.

 

“Keegan actually having a reason to disappear me wasn’t in the plan either.  But it happened.”

 

“How?”

 

“Someone on my team must have said something.  Captain Greene or Quest.”

 

“Greene,” Rick said immediately.

 

Dalton’s face took on a suspicious expression.  “How do you know that?”

 

“Because Captain Quest has been helping us,” Rick said after a brief hesitation.

 

Dalton pursed his lips in thought and took a slow sip of coffee.  “You had someone else in there,” he finally said, soft and angry, “and you didn’t tell me.”

 

“You didn’t need to know.  He was there to watch for the people going after you,” Rick said.

 

“Oh, and a fine job he did of that!”

 

“Actually, yes.  Quest is doing his job to the letter.  Unlike you.”

 

“Tell me what I was supposed to do,” Dalton hissed softly.  “Spend the rest of my life in a closest-sized cell?  Now are you going to help me, or not?”

 

Rick licked his lips in that nervous habit he had that set Dalton on edge.  “Listen, John.  You quit.  You walked away.  I’m sorry but I can’t do anything now.  You’re not… not really our concern anymore.”

 

“Just because I’m a civilian?”

 

“Yes,” Rick said and fiddled with his cup, clearly uncomfortable.

 

“What about those friends of mine?  They’re in the lower levels, Rick.  You know what that means.  They aren’t even from here.”  The truth, but not.  Rick didn’t need to know they were time travellers.

 

“We don’t know them, John.  We don’t have any responsibility for them.”

 

“The hell you don’t!” Dalton said a little louder than he intended.  He looked around and waited until everyone turned back to their own tables before continuing.  “This is your fault!”

 

“Really?” Rick asked with a degree of amusement.  “How’s that?”

 

“If you’d never put me in this situation, made me… bait… Greene never would have been on my team.  He never would have turned them in!”

 

Rick’s eyes squinted into a shrewd expression.  “Turned them in for what?”

 

Dalton huffed and shook his head.  “Us,” he clarified.  “He wouldn’t have shot his mouth off.  Now they’re paying for your plans and you need to do something about it!”

 

“That’s not our job,” Rick said.

 

“Not… I can’t believe this!  Weren’t you the one who came to me, didn’t you say it was time to bring back the loyalty, the trust?  The idea of leave no one behind?  Wasn’t that you?  And now here you are, washing your hands of it, throwing us all to the wolves!”

 

“We’re trying to fix things, John.  Make our world a little better.  But until that world exists we can’t afford to be idealists.”

 

Dalton smacked his palm onto the table.  “You’re a bunch of hypocrites!  It has to start somewhere, Rick, with someone.  It could have been you.  It should have been you,” Dalton spat as he stood and threw a bill onto the table for his coffee.  “Good riddance.”

 

Rick watched as he stormed towards the door.  “What are you going to do, John?”

 

“Whatever I have to.”

 

---

Carter couldn’t remember why she was locked in this white room.  She knew it was bad but she couldn’t remember why.  The world was nothing but a smear of colours that she knew shouldn’t be there because she was in a white room.  She knew that.  At least she thought she knew that. 

 

It was a smear of filmy colours, like there was something over her eyes but there wasn’t because she’d checked.  Everything seemed twisted just slightly to the left and her vision had tunnelled down to a very small circle.  Carter knew it wasn’t right but she didn’t know why. 

 

The only other thing she knew was that she had to move.  She still didn’t know why, but she just had a feeling that she shouldn’t be sitting still.  So she was walking around her white, colour smeared room, but since the world was crooked and seemed to be moving on its own she wasn’t quite steady on her feet and trailed her hand across the wall to stay upright.

 

As she turned to head back the other way everything seemed to shift and suddenly she was sprawled in the corner.  She stayed, deciding walking wasn’t such a great idea.  But that need to move was still there.

 

Carter couldn’t fathom why, but she knew nothing about this was good.

 

---

Friessen watched as Carter fell over and then slowly sat up, soon starting a slight rocking motion and incessant foot tapping.  She was flicking her fingers in an odd manner and moving her jaw from side to side.  He could see that her gaze was wandering the room very, very slowly.

 

“This is incredible,” he said quietly to himself as he took notes.  She was displaying several signs of ataxia – the unsteady, stumbling walk and her slow eye movements – but her cerebellum was fine.  Her restless movements and odd manners were manifestations of akathisia and tardive dyskinesias, both common side effects for many of the dopamine inhabiting drugs he’d given her.  It didn’t surprise him since he’d had to administer triple the normal dose to see any effect at all.

 

The amazing thing was that, while her brain was being affected in all the normal areas in all the normal ways as regular patients, the areas where she had abnormal activity were being hyper-stimulated.

 

Friessen decided to give it another ten minutes for the drugs to fully run their course and take hold before he went in to assess her behaviour.  He swivelled and grabbed his equipment to prepare.

 

 

---

General Keegan almost crowed in triumph when he finally found the contents list for box number 29036-X.  It didn’t take him long to scroll down the list and find what was missing.  Four personnel files, all from the program’s inception.

 

He leaned back and scowled.  It didn’t make sense.  Files for current members, or recently retired, those he could understand stealing.  Ones that detailed technological discoveries, useful planets, natural resources – all of those had value.  But why anyone would steal files of people who’d been dead for almost three-hundred years baffled him.

 

Keegan turned his eyes to the security feeds, now down to two with Dalton gone and Carter in Friessen’s care, and he almost slapped himself on the forehead.

 

He had three time travellers locked up in his facility.  Was it possible they were originally from the past and were now trying to get back?  He squinted at the screen in thought and supposed that anything was possible.  But it didn’t answer why and confused an already complicated situation.

 

Keegan grabbed the list and read the names again.  Colonel O’Neill, Major Carter, Doctor Jackson, Teal’c.  He recognized them, to a point.  The four of them had been vital in the program’s beginning, in its existence in the first place, but the rather inglorious ends each of them had met meant they’d faded from memory.  There were other people, other heroes, who’d done more marvellous things than figure out the Stargate.  People who had saved the planet more than once, people who had shaped what the SGC was to become.

 

And yet, Keegan kept his eyes on that last name… wondering.  For all he knew Teal’c was the Jaffa equivalent of John Smith.  And Carter was common enough there was no reason to assume this Carter was the same.  But he had that feeling in his gut telling him everything here was connected and that despite the odds and the improbability he had his answer.

 

He checked the contents list again and then rifled through the box, looking for a particular report.  It had been filed with these personnel records because of its importance.  Keegan found it and pulled it out, confirming what he thought he’d remembered.  Major Carter and Teal’c hadn’t died, been lost on a distant planet, or anything of the sort.  They’d simply vanished.  Which meant this very well could be them.

 

Keegan pushed to his feet, his decision made.  For the sake of his sanity he was going to modify his plan.  And he was sure Victor and Colonel Ritter were just about ready for another round.

 

---

“Alright, Carter,” Friessen said as he stepped inside.  “Let’s see what’s happening.”  He walked towards her and kneeled down, inching a bit closer.

 

“Doctor Friessen,” one of the orderlies, the one whose nose Carter had broken, warned softly. 

 

Friessen looked over his shoulder, slightly exasperated.  “It’s fine,” he said.  “She hasn’t even acknowledged me.”

 

“But she’s been violent,” the orderly countered.

 

Friessen snorted and turned back to Carter.  “Hardly.  It’s not my fault you got clocked in the face.”  He mentally dismissed the orderlies and then focused on Carter. 

 

She was still rocking, still moving her foot at a rapid tap, and her eyes were fixed forward and slightly up.  Friessen frowned as he noticed that and remembered her wandering gaze of before.  He got a little closer and felt her pulse.  It was beating rapidly. 

 

“Carter?” He asked, edging even closer, wondering if she was having an oculogyric crisis.  He repeated her name a few times and finally her eyes tracked to his face, excruciatingly slowly.  “I need you to talk to me,” he said.

 

Carter stared at him for a long moment as his words apparently filtered into her understanding.  Then she rattled off a string of words.

 

Friessen blinked.  “Wha…” He didn’t have time to say anything before she said it again and then one more time.  It was clearly another language but it was the repetition that he was interested in.  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pad of paper, offered it and a pen to her.

 

Carter took them and scribbled something out.  He watched over her shoulder, her writing unsteady and shaky like she couldn’t quite work up the control necessary for such fine movements.  They weren’t symbols he recognized but it was the same ones, over and over again.

 

She thrust the pad back at him, apparently finished with it, and turned away, rubbing at her eyes like they were sore.  She shuffled to her feet awkwardly and started walking in random patterns, clearly agitated.

 

Friessen stood and watched, now convinced it was a crisis.  He pulled out his hand computer that received the same information as the machines in his lab and felt his eyebrows jump in surprise.  The regular parts of her brain were almost overshadowed by the activity everywhere else.  He looked back at Carter and wondered if whatever she was saying was linked to whatever had caused this increased function. 

 

It was amazing that the drugs he’d administered had allowed those areas of her brain to so fully take over.  He wondered if she could access the “normal” parts.  She wasn’t speaking or writing English, perhaps because that area was now locked off.  Did she remember him, this room, her situation?  Would she remember her companions?  Did she even know who she was?”

 

They were fascinating questions but not his ultimate aim.  He couldn’t answer them without allowing the drugs to wear off and asking.  Friessen didn’t think she’d cooperate and he didn’t want to lose this level of stimulation.  If he could maintain it he could see what impact other factors had.

 

The implications were staggering.  If he could find a way to have the same effect in a normal person, for the same drugs to essentially activate those areas of Carter’s brain that had been stimulated, he would exponentially increase the human capacity for learning, for thought, memory, and a host of other things.

 

Friessen check the time and realized if he was going to keep her at this point he needed to administer a booster.  He set his computer aside and pulled out another needle, pulling off the cap. 

 

A strangled cry was all the warning he got before he was tackled.  His finger squeezed the plunger and shot his carefully measured cocktail into the air.  But that didn’t matter because Carter was on top of him, screaming at the top of her voice with spittle flying; the alien language was harsh and grating, her eyes wide and wild. 

 

He could see the two orderlies moving after a moment of frozen shock.  They were blocked out as Carter reached forward and wrested the needle from his hand.  The orderly with the broken nose got there first and Friessen felt a surge of relief as the man’s large hand landed on Carter’s shoulder.

 

But Carter wasn’t going to accept that.  She reacted instantly, pushing up with her legs and sending him back.  Her movements were powered by rage and fear and he fell far enough to knock the second orderly off balance.

 

Friessen took his opportunity and scrambled to his feet, rapidly backing up.  But he was still close enough that when Carter turned and saw him she was there in two steps.  She grabbed his shirt and he tried to wrestle free.  They ended up slamming back into the floor together.  He tried to roll but she had her legs clamped around his hips holding him steady.

 

She grabbed his face and he saw the needle jabbing down.  He had a moment of horrified realization of her intent the instant before she slammed the needle into his eye.  Friessen screamed and thrashed, kicking wildly and finally managed to dislodge her.

 

He grabbed his eye and shuffled back, felt blood oozing from his fingers, and heard through her screaming and the orderlies yelling that someone had hit the panic button.  More people streamed into the room, doctors pressing gauze over his eye and shuffling him out.

 

Friessen’s last glimpse of Carter was of four orderlies manhandling her onto the floor, her arms twisted violently behind her, one of them sitting on her legs, the other pressing on her shoulders, while another searched vainly for somewhere to inject her.  He finally gave up and stuck the needle into her neck.

 

---

“Colonel Ritter!” Keegan yelled as he headed down the hall.

 

Ritter turned from where he stood in the threshold of Teal’c’s cell.  “Sir?”

 

“I want you to change the direction of your questions,” Keegan said and handed Ritter a sheet of paper.  He’d decided he would let Ritter continue since he’d spent the most time with Teal’c.  It meant Ritter was more familiar with Teal’c and any patterns of avoidance he might have.

 

Ritter scanned the sheet of questions and nodded to himself.  “Teal’c, what did you do before the SGC?”

 

---

Teal’c knew something was different.  He could feel the tingling heat shifting, moving direction, its purpose changing as it sought out something else.

 

He grimaced and tried to force his mind to change tracks, tried to find a focus point that wouldn’t give him what he wanted.  But it was hard, because he’d been using the good times with SG-1, them being together and happy, as the distraction.  Now though, those memories and the ones connected to them were being tugged on, coaxed forward.

 

Teal’c didn’t know which way to turn.  SG-1 and freeing the Jaffa had been his life for many years.  He shied away from thinking of his time with Colonel Carter and Baal, lest that reveal more than he intended.  His time as First Prime would also be too revealing.

 

What did that leave?

 

With an effort of pure force and will Teal’c turned his mind onto his childhood, the years before he knew who Cronus or Apophis were, when he was as carefree as possible.

 

---

Keegan was just starting to think they were making progress when the alarm ripped through the air.  He turned and grabbed the nearest phone.  “What is it?”

 

The security officer answered instantly, knowing who was on the other end.  “Someone’s been attacked, sir.  We’re just getting the reports now.  It looks like… Doctor Friessen.  He was stabbed,” the woman hesitated, clearly listening to something else, “in the eye.” She finally said.  “With a needle.”

 

Keegan knew it could only be one person.  Friessen hadn’t left his lab since taking charge of Carter and that was almost twenty-four hours ago now.  “He’s being seen to?”

 

“Yes, sir.”

 

“What level was this on?”

 

“Thirty-four, General.  Room sixteen.”

 

“I’ll be there right away,” he said and hung up.  Keegan glanced at Ritter for a moment.  “Continue with this until you get something,” he said and then was off for the elevator.

 

When he arrived outside room sixteen it was to see a trail of blood on the floor and numerous orderlies, SFs, and a few doctors clustered around outside.  “Report,” Keegan snapped.

 

The senior doctor stiffened slightly and turned to face the General.  “Sir, Doctor Friessen has been taken to medical.  He’ll live but he probably won’t ever see out of that eye again.”

 

“And Carter?” He asked and moved closer to the observation window.  She was curled into a foetal position as if she’d tried to make herself as small as possible.  He could see her whole body trembling lightly.

 

“Heavily sedated, sir,” an orderly said.

 

“How did this happen?”

 

Everyone looked to the two orderlies who had been supervising.  They shifted slightly under the scrutiny and exchanged a look before the senior one started speaking.  “Doctor Friessen was assessing her mental state and behaviour.  I thought she was acting somewhat erratically; she was moving around, clearly highly agitated.  Doctor Friessen seemed unconcerned even though I warned him.  When he pulled out another needle she went berserk.”

 

Keegan stared through the window as he remembered everything he’d read.  If this was Major Carter, if the Jaffa was Teal’c, then Keegan had been underestimating them at every turn.  They were not people to be taken lightly and this was exactly why. 

 

He’d been receiving reports from Friessen every time the doctor found something he thought was remotely interesting.  They’d come almost every hour for awhile; Keegan hadn’t read them all but he’d gotten the impression that Carter should have been so full of drugs that she shouldn’t have been able to tell which way was up.  To actually attack someone and wound them severely wasn’t something that should have been possible.

 

“I want full security measures,” Keegan said.

 

“General?” The orderly asked.

 

“Full,” Keegan emphasized.  “This isn’t going to happen again.  Understood?”

 

They all heard the snap in his voice and nodded vigorously.  As Keegan turned to leave he heard them start scuttling around to comply with his orders.

 

---

Baal had given up singing long ago, around the time his collarbone had fully healed.  He’d laid himself out on his paltry cot and thought about everything he wanted to do when they got out of this.  One thing he knew for sure, if they had many more days like these last four they were all going to need a vacation soon.

 

His thoughts ground to a halt when the wail of an alarm reached him through the metal door.  He sat up and knew that meant either Carter or Teal’c was causing problems.  It was a fifty-fifty split about who it was.  But Baal thought maybe Carter was slightly more likely because of her temper; Teal’c was always the picture of calm, even when his anger was simmering below the surface.

 

“Screw this,” he muttered and stood, walking to the door.  He started examining its construction with an eye towards science.  Looking at points of stress, leverage, wear and tear.

 

After several minutes of this he firmed his grip around the edges and started pushing to the side, then the other.  It didn’t move much but it did give with a slight groan.  The hinges had to have space to allow the door to swing, and if he could apply enough pressure in the right spots and then get leverage he just might be able to get out.

 

By his count it was edging into twenty-six hours.  Baal knew how much trouble Teal’c and Carter could get into if left to their own devices.  It would only get worse now that one of them had done something to piss them off.

 

Baal was tired of waiting around and doing nothing.  It was time to start taking their fate into their own hands again and step one was breaking out.  He just hoped that when he did get out that famous SG-1 luck would hold and apply to him as well.

 

---

“General?”

 

Keegan looked up and scowled when he saw the security officer.  “What took so long?  I asked for that footage last night!”

 

“Yes, sir,” the woman said and moved farther into his office, “But we had some problems.  It seems that the cameras you indicated were somehow interfered with.  The footage was corrupted.  We’ve been trying to figure out how or recover some of it but nothing’s worked.”

 

“So what you’re saying is you have no idea who has stolen from this base?”

 

“Yes, sir, that’s what I’m saying.”

 

“Then what good are you to me, Sergeant?”

 

She shuffled nervously and hesitantly offered a list.  “These are names of possibilities, sir.  We looked at all the adjacent cameras for people heading into or around that area at the same time that the cameras went out.”

 

Keegan flipped through the list.  “There are almost forty names here.”

 

“Yes, sir.  It’s the best we could do, General.”

 

Keegan dropped the names onto his desk.  “Who was on duty during the failure?”

 

“Uh, well, myself and two others sir.”

 

“Then you can tell them on your way to clean out your stuff that they can do likewise and get the hell off my base.”

 

“But General-“

 

“You’re finished, Sergeant!  I don’t need incompetent security personnel.  Now get moving!”

 

The Sergeant stiffened and offered a rigid nod before turning to leave.

 

---

Dalton knocked and waited in the cold until Quest pulled open the door.  “You wanted to see me?”  Quest nodded and gestured inside.  Dalton followed him to his living room and was surprised to see Hayden and Pierce already sitting there.  “What’s going on?”

 

“We need you help, sir,” Quest said.

 

“I’m not ‘sir’ anymore, Quest.”

 

“You resigned under duress, sir.  In any other circumstances it wouldn’t have been accepted,” Quest said.

 

Hayden and Pierce were nodding in agreement.  “You’re still our Major Dalton,” Hayden said.  “And we need your help for our plan to work.”

 

Dalton gave in and sat opposite the Lieutenants.  “What do you need me to do?”

 

“Essentially what you avoided by quitting,” Quest said.  “We need you to get arrested by General Keegan and sent to the lower levels.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because we can’t break in on our own,” Quest said.  “But if you get down there with this,” he held out a small device, “and manage to drop it in the elevator I’ll be able to take remote control and we’ll get in.”

 

Dalton took the small, reflective machine and turned it over.  “And then what?  What about all the security down there?  You planning on just busting us all out and shooting everyone who gets in the way?”

 

“I’ve arranged something of a distraction,” Quest said.  “I know some people who will tie Keegan up with politics and who will divert a lot of the SGC’s security.”

 

Dalton scowled, sure the people Quest was talking about were the same ones who said they couldn’t help him.  But he pushed his anger away.  It didn’t matter in the end as long as their objective was met.  “Okay.  It’s better than anything I’ve come up with.  When do you want this to go down?”

 

“Tonight,” Quest said immediately.  “Everything’s set to start around eleven.  You need to let me get back to the base first.  I’ve got paperwork, reasons to be there.  I can call in the Lieutenants.  Give us an hour then get yourself arrested.  You know how to do that?”

 

“Oh, I’ve got a few ideas,” Dalton said with a small smile.

 

“Good.  Once we’re in we’ll find you all with the security cameras.  Then we’ll just have to hold them off until Colonel Carter can do whatever she needs to do to make their gizmo work,” he nodded at the remote that sat on the table.

 

“Alright,” Dalton said.  “Sounds simple enough.  You’re sure we can do it?  Hold them off I mean?”

 

Quest glanced off to the side where a stack of equipment, weapons, and gizmos sat just begging to be used.  “I think we can manage.”

 

Dalton glanced at the Lieutenants.  “And you’re both on board with this?  You realize we’ll probably never set foot in the SGC again, even if we catch all the bad guys.”

 

They nodded.  “This is the right thing,” Pierce said.

 

Dalton stood.  “Okay, an hour.”  He turned the small machine over in his fingers again.  “And I just drop it?  Don’t have to activate it, get it anywhere specific?”

 

“Nope.  Just drop it in the elevator.”

 

Dalton nodded and headed for the door.  “See you all soon.”

 

I hope.

 

---

The Sergeant was still muttering under her breath when she stepped into the security room to tell her three shift mates that they were now all unemployed.  The look they gave her when she opened the door delayed her announcement.  “What?”

 

“Three-quarters of third shift just got an emergency transfer order out of the mountain,” one of the men said.

 

“It’s insane,” the other chimed in, “it doesn’t give any reason.  We’re going to be understaffed now.  Most of second has already left.  I think we’re the only ones here and those guys on twenty-one.”

 

“Just the guys on twenty-one,” the Sergeant said.  “We’ve been fired.  General Keegan’s throwing us off the base.”

 

“What!”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because of the security footage,” she said.

 

“But, they need us.  We’ve been trying to contact the General but he’s unavailable.  Maybe we should look for Colonel Ritter.”

 

The Sergeant shook her head and grabbed her coat from her chair.  “You two can do whatever you want.  But I’m out of here.  This isn’t our responsibility now.”

 

The two men paused and looked at each other as she moved to the door.  As she pulled it open they got to their feet and followed. 

 

Screw the SGC.

 

---

Pierce handed the requisition to the SF and stepped into the armoury.  With Greene’s job to flush out Dalton over he’d been removed from the team which meant that, currently, Captain Quest was the team leader.  And that meant he had the power to requisition equipment.

 

Pierce opened his bag and walked down the aisle, looking for something specific.  He finally spotted the Colonel, Teal’c, and Baal’s equipment.  He systematically started filling his bag, moving ever closer to the items he really wanted, and finally stuck them in.

 

By now General Keegan should be fully distracted and the security personnel on the move.  It was a combination of sudden transfers and reports of suspicious activity outside in the surrounding forest that would occupy the SFs.  Keegan should be knee deep in a conversation with another General about his rampant spending.  Bureaucracy could be great.  And Major Dalton should be just about to make his move.

 

They needed to be ready to go as soon as possible because their window was small.  So Pierce picked up the pace without looking like he was in a hurry, aware of the omnipresent security cameras.

 

When he was done he allowed the SF to check his bag, cross-referencing with the purposefully vague, open to interpretation requisition.  He tried to look normal as the SF shifted everything and got a look at the items he’d stuffed in the bottom.  The SF looked like he was about to say something when the phone rang.  The strident, harried tones of the person on the other end reached Pierce’s ears and then the SF slammed the phone down and ran off, apparently having something more important to do.  Like patrol for prowlers, Pierce thought as he let out a held breath and then gathered his bag, scurrying off before anything could go wrong.

 

---

Dalton checked his watch and walked boldly up to the front gates.  “Hey!  Hey, you!  I want to talk to General Keegan!  HEY!”  He grabbed the gate and shook it, finally attracting three guards.

 

“You need to leave.  Now,” one of them said.

 

“I’m not going anywhere until I see Keegan.”

 

“Listen, you…”

 

“Hey, Chuck.  That’s Dalton.  The General kicked him off the base the other day.”

 

Chuck’s expression changed and he motioned for the gate to be opened.  “So you want to see the General?  Fine, you’re under arrest.”

 

Dalton backed off, knowing he had to piss them off enough that he wouldn’t be thrown into a normal cell.  “On second thought…”

 

“Hey,” Chuck reached out and got roundhoused for his trouble. 

 

The other two grabbed Dalton’s arms.  He fought enough to make it look like a real effort and then allowed them to snap cuffs on.

 

“Get him inside,” Chuck said as he stood and held his nose.

 

Dalton was trying to figure out where they were taking him and if he needed to do something to help them along in their decision when Colonel Ritter rounded a corner.

 

“What’s he doing here?”

 

“He showed up at the front gate, sir, yelling and making a fuss.  He punched Chuck.”

 

Ritter scowled at Dalton.  “You shouldn’t have come back here, Dalton.  You had a deal.  You won’t get another one.  Take him below.”

 

The SFs shifted.  “Really?  But-“

 

“Now!” Ritter yelled.  “We don’t have time to deal with him!  Go!”

 

The SFs dragged Dalton away and he just barely kept himself from smiling.

 

---

General Keegan was almost yelling as he justified his operation yet again.  None of the bureaucrats appreciated that a special sanction from the President meant he could do whatever he wanted, no matter the cost.

 

There was always one who balked at the numbers the first time they laid eyes on the SGC’s operation reports.  They were usually the older men who remembered the time before, when voters and taxpayers wanted every government penny accounted for.

 

Keegan was so caught up in venting his frustration he was oblivious to his security feeds.  If he’d looked he would have seen one empty cell.

 

---

Baal pushed down on the metal bar he’d detached from his cot again, groaning and feeling like he was on the verge of tearing something.

 

But finally the second hinge gave up and clattered loose, falling to the floor.  Baal dropped the bar and jumped back as the door shifted and toppled inwards with nothing to hold it up.

 

The crash surely attracted attention but he didn’t care right now.  He was out.  Baal allowed himself a small chortle and retrieved his metal bar.  He could hear footsteps and voices as people headed for his cell.

 

Baal hefted the bar and stepped into the hall swinging, taking the first two out with one swipe.  They fell in a mess of blood and bits of bone.  He swung again and took out the third who’d tried to slide to a halt at his sudden appearance.

 

He claimed their dropped weapons and started walking down a random hall.  The others had to be around here somewhere.

 

---

Dalton twisted his wrist, trying to coax the small machine from his sleeve and around the cuff.  He’d been trying the entire trip down and now they were nearing their stop.  It finally fell into his palm and he dropped it with a sense of relief.

 

The SFs pulled him into the hall and down a corridor, looking for an open cell.  As they turned a corner they stopped, staring at the three still bodies and the cell that no longer had a door.

 

They pulled their weapons and looked cautiously around as they reached for their radios.  Nothing but static answered them and Dalton racked another point up for Quest.  He certainly knew what he was doing.

 

Dalton eased back, that sense that had kept him alive all this time tingling.  When Baal stepped around the corner ahead of them with two weapons raised Dalton was falling to the floor before he heard the yell.  He scrunched up and tried to avoid getting hit.  The gunfire was brief and when he finally uncurled Baal was already rifling around their bodies looking for keys.

 

“What are you doing here, Major Dalton?”

 

“Looking for you guys,” Dalton said as he offered his cuffed hands.

 

Baal unlocked him and pulled him up.  “Just you?”

 

“No, the others should be here soon,” he said and gestured back to the elevator.  “We should wait for them.”

 

Baal hefted his weapons and checked their rear before following Dalton.

 

---

Quest met the Lieutenants at the elevator that dinged its arrival as they stopped in the corridor.  They stepped inside and Quest told it to head to level thirty-two.  He used the time to affix an electronic scrambler to the controls that would keep anyone else from using it for several hours.  It would decrease the number of people they needed to deal with since the lower levels were not accessible by stairs, hatches, or any other kind of transportation.  It was the elevator or it was nothing.

 

The Lieutenants were arming themselves and took positions by the door.  When the door slid open they crouched down and aimed, looking for guards, doctors, or orderlies.  No one was there to greet them so they edged out and swept the hall.

 

“Dalton here,” they heard from farther down the hall as the man himself edged into view.

 

Hayden smiled.  “How’d you get out?”

 

Dalton gestured behind him and Baal stepped out.  “Got a little help.  He’d broken out already.”

 

“I hope you have a plan?” Baal asked.

 

“Of course we do,” Pierce said.  “Who works without a plan?”

 

Baal raised an eyebrow.  “You’d be surprised.  I assume it doesn’t involve going back that way?”

 

“You’re right,” Quest said and pulled out the remote.  “It involves you using that to get out of here.”  Baal caught it and tucked it into his pocket with an odd look that Quest saw.  “What’s wrong?”

 

“I’m not sure that’s the best plan.  It requires calculations…”

 

“We know,” Hayden said as he dug in his bag, “we’re prepared to buy you all the time you need.  Ah!” He pulled out what he was looking for and handed Baal his gear.  “Here.”

 

Baal took his own weapons and jacket gratefully, slipping it on and securing the remote in the inner pocket.  “Where to?  If we have to wander around until we find them I don’t like our odds.”

 

“There’s a security room that way,” Quest said and pointed to his left.  “We should be able to find them from there.”

 

“Lead the way,” Dalton said as he gripped his own gun.

 

---

Dalton clocked the last security officer on the head and moved into the room.  He motioned Pierce and Hayden to watch the door while the rest of them moved to the monitors.  They each took a seat and started flipping through cameras.

 

Baal moved the fastest, clicking through screens at a rapid rate.  He knew he would recognize them immediately.  He’d lived with them for twenty years.  He’d know them anywhere. 

 

There were a lot of cameras, though, and it was ten minutes before he saw it.  “I found Teal’c,” he said.

 

Quest looked over to note the level and cell number.  “That’s way down at the other end of this level,” he said.  “He doesn’t look too good.”

 

Baal had to agree.  Teal’c was lying on his cot with one arm thrown over his face.  Baal could see the tension in his body like he was in pain and holding it all in.  “He’ll be okay,” Baal finally said.  “He’s tough.”

 

Another ten minutes slipped by and then another five and they still hadn’t found Carter.  Baal was getting increasingly agitated, thinking they’d shipped her off somewhere else or – God forbid – killed her.

 

“I’ve got the Colonel!” Dalton finally said.  The other two moved to cluster around him.  “I finally switched to the medical level.  She’s in room sixteen on level thirty-four.”

 

“She really doesn’t look good,” Quest muttered.

 

Baal leaned closer, itching to reach through the screen and do something.  Or at least zoom the camera in.  The picture was too wide to tell them much but she was curled up in the centre of the room, misery written into every line of her body.  “Let’s go,” he said, his voice slightly rough.

 

Quest pulled back and headed for the door.  “We’ll get Teal’c first.  There’s a staircase to take us down right by him.  It looks like there’s a heavy presence around the Colonel’s room but not much in between.”

 

They fell into step as Quest started leading them again.  Baal fingered the remote through his jacket, thinking that if Carter was even half as bad as she looked then their plan had just been seriously derailed.

 

---

The SGC was having a bit of a crisis.  People were running around, not sure what exactly they should be doing.  The SFs were outside hunting down people up to no good in the forest and Ritter was on a rampage about all the people late for shift.  The General was sequestered in his office and Greene was just trying to stay out of the way.

 

He had taken it upon himself to find out what was happening and was headed for the main security office.  When he opened the door no one was there but a piece of paper on the floor caught his eye.  He grabbed it and read about the transfers of third shift, the people Ritter was raging about.

 

Greene grabbed the nearest phone and called Ritter’s aide.  He should have been told about this before now.  After leaving his message Greene turned but paused as something on the screen caught his eye.  He went back a few cameras and leaned closer only to curse when he realized what he was looking at.

 

Dalton’s team and Dalton himself were walking down a hallway on level thirty-two, armed and clearly on a mission.  Baal’s presence behind them all only confirmed everything for Greene, not that there had been any doubt.

 

He picked up the phone again and slapped the alarm.  He couldn’t get through to the General or Ritter so he went for the base’s third in command.  “This is Captain Greene.  We have a major security situation in the lower levels.  The base has been breached.  They’re armed and have already broken one prisoner out.  I suggest immediate level one response.”

 

Greene listened for a moment and then hung up the phone.  He headed for the nearest armoury and then for the elevator to meet up with a team.  This had to end now.

 

---

“Teal’c.  Teal’c!”  Someone was shaking his shoulder, voice low and urgent, and as he recognized it as Baal the pieces fell together and Teal’c forced himself fully awake and alert.  He opened his eyes and stared blearily up at Baal and forced his mind to centre on the now.  He’d gotten a little lost in his meditation and memories and it was taking a little time to come back, to focus around his headache.

 

“Baal,” Teal’c finally said and then looked behind him at the others.

 

“Come on,” Baal said as he pulled Teal’c up to sit.  “We’ve got to move.  Can you walk?”

 

Teal’c nodded slowly.  “I believe so,” he said and forced himself up.  He wobbled and listed to one side though.  Baal steadied him and pulled Teal’c’s arm over his shoulders.

 

“What happened?” Baal asked as they started for the staircase.

 

“They employed a memory device to seek out knowledge about the future,” Teal’c said as he looked around and oriented himself.  “What of Colonel Carter?”

 

“We’re heading there now,” Baal said.  “I haven’t seen her since we were arrested.”

 

“Nor have I,” Teal’c said.  He pushed himself away from Baal and started walking under his own power.  It took all his concentration to stay upright and steady but he wouldn’t endanger them by limiting Baal’s ability to fight.  He just needed some time to gather his composure and adjust; he would be fine.

 

---

Baal allowed Teal’c to pull away but kept an eye on him.  He didn’t like how slowly the Jaffa was moving, the obvious disconnect between him and the rest of the world.  Teal’c was clearly disoriented and not bouncing back like Baal would have expected.

 

He felt slightly guilty for not telling Teal’c that they’d seen Carter on the security cameras but thought he had enough to worry about right now.  First they had to find her and then deal with all the guards.  One step at a time was the way to operate.

 

“Okay,” Quest’s voice captured his attention, “when we exit the stairwell we’ll probably meet resistance.  The medical level showed more activity than the others.”  He eased open the door and looked out, scanning as much as he could see.  When he pulled back he held up three fingers and indicated direction.

 

Dalton was right behind Quest and nodded.  The two of them positioned themselves on the door.  When Quest threw it open again he was crouched low with Dalton above him.  They fired three precise shots.  Quest nodded in satisfaction and led them out.

 

Baal stayed in his position at the rear watching for anyone behind them.  Teal’c was ahead of him, being carefully watched by Pierce.  No one snuck up behind them and they only encountered another half-dozen people on their way to room sixteen.

 

Quest looked around the corner with Dalton and then pulled back.  “What are they doing?”

 

Dalton glanced again at the people seemingly loitering in the hall, shifting somewhat nervously and looking every which way.  “It looks like they don’t have any idea what’s happening.  They’re just waiting to be told what to do.”

 

“How many?” Hayden asked.

 

“About eight SFs.  Three orderlies and one doctor.”

 

“A round dozen,” Baal said.  “Nice.”

 

“They should pose little problem,” Teal’c said, leaning heavily against the wall.

 

“You’re not going out there,” Baal said firmly. 

 

“I am.”

 

“No, because you can barely stand up properly.  You’ll probably shoot one of us if we give you a gun,” Baal said.

 

Teal’c closed his eyes in some kind of internal evaluation and nodded.  “Very well.”

 

Baal let out a relieved breath and turned back to Dalton.  “Whatever we’re doing let’s do it.  We don’t have a lot of time.”

 

Quest pulled something out of his pocket and held it up.  “This’ll be easy,” he said, glancing at Dalton and the Lieutenants.  “On three.  One, two,” he pulled the pin and threw the flashbang around the corner.  It went off and Quest shouted, “Three!”

 

The four of them rounded the corner and opened fire on the stunned, blinded personnel.  They fell easily and quickly, leaving the hallway and the door to Carter’s room clear. 

 

Baal pulled Teal’c off the wall and around the corner.  “Effective,” he said with approval.  He leaned Teal’c against another wall and approached the door.  There wasn’t a handle or a keypad or any kind of mechanism he could see.  Baal ran his hands along the visible seams and then turned to the others.  “How does this open?”

 

Everyone looked at Quest who’d been their source of information before now.  But he could only offer a helpless shrug.  “I don’t know.”

 

Footsteps and voices down one of the halls caught their attention.  “Well you better figure it out,” Dalton said as he pressed himself against the corner and glanced around, “because we’ve got incoming.”

 

Pierce was peering around the opposite corner.  “Lots of company,” he added.

 

Baal gave up on the door and turned to the fallen bodies.  He rifled through them all, looking for a keycard or a remote or anything.  Teal’c had partially collapsed to the floor and was helping but there was nothing.

 

“Maybe it opens remotely,” Hayden offered.  “From another room or something.”

 

Dalton started firing then, trying to pin down the advancing SFs before they could get close enough to do real damage.

 

Baal looked around for another door.  Wherever it opened from would be close.  He finally spotted it, a partially ajar door, the room lit only by the blinking of equipment.  But he had to cross the hallway Dalton was covering to get there. 

 

“I’ll cover you,” Quest said from his spot by the cell door where he’d just secured a small camera.  He moved to Dalton’s corner, laid down on the floor, and squirmed up to see around the corner.  “Ready?  Go!”  Quest moved forward that extra inch and started firing, mostly blind, while Dalton did likewise.

 

Baal dashed across the hallway safely and ducked into the lab.  He was met with banks of equipment and computers and yet more cameras showing Carter’s cell.  He couldn’t help looking and felt his stomach lurch a bit. 

 

She was still lying on the floor but he had a better view now and could see cuffs on her wrists attached by a short chain to a belt around her waist.  It left her arms essentially immobile.  And the odd way her upper body was oriented unsettled him even more.

 

Baal tore his eyes away with great effort and focused on finding a door release.  But there were so many buttons and switches, so many machines that the possibilities seemed endless.  He decided it would be on or around the desk but it was full of computers.  Baal swept all the computers off with a crash, spilled stacks of paper to the floor, and finally uncovered what had to be it.

 

He pushed it and watched through the cameras as part of the wall slowly started to swing outward.  Baal turned to go but another screen caught his eye.  It was a small computer swirling with obvious medical information.  He grabbed it without thought and headed back into the hall, spurned on by the increased gunfire.

 

---

“A little help here!” Pierce yelled and was soon joined by Hayden.  There were about twenty SFs in the hall and they’d wised up, dragging desks and anything they could get their hands on out of rooms to use as cover.  They were making slow progress up the hallway.

 

“We can’t hold this forever!” Dalton yelled.

 

“Where the hell is Baal!” Quest yelled as he pulled back to avoid a blast.  He heard a hiss behind him and turned to see the door opening.  “He got it!  Go!”

 

Hayden fell back first, pausing by Teal’c who was trying unsuccessfully to get to his feet.  “Come on,” Hayden said.  He moved his gun to hang at his back and half pulled Teal’c into the room. 

 

“Go, Quest!” Dalton yelled as he ducked down for a better angle.  He waited and glanced behind him then off to the side where Baal appeared.  They exchanged a nod and Dalton sprayed the hall, allowing Baal to run across.  “Alright, Pierce!  Ready, go!”

 

The two of them released one last spray of bullets into their respective halls before running to the cell in tandem.  The minute they passed through the threshold Quest and Baal started pulling the door inward, soon aided by the others.  They had to force the mechanism but it finally sealed shut and Quest slapped another electronic scrambler onto it.

 

They shared a moment of mutual relief at their relative safety before Teal’c stirred and said quietly, “Colonel Carter.”  He didn’t move from his sprawled position on the floor though, his face showing the strain of the last two days.

 

Dalton was the closest to Carter and knelt down by her side.  “Colonel?” He reached out slowly, remembering the last time he’d touched her shoulder, and barely grazed his fingers across her upper arm.

 

Carter reacted violently.  She jerked back, a rapid string of sounds issuing from her throat, and tried to roll away.  But between her immobilized arms and the flash of pain Dalton saw on her face she didn’t get very far.  She swiped out with her legs instead and caught him in the knee, knocking him over.

 

Baal’s hand on his shoulder kept him from trying again.  “Allow me,” he said.  He got down onto his stomach so he was eye-to-eye with Carter and studied her face.  Her eyes were open but clouded with confusion and distance; he was sure she didn’t even see him.  He’d gotten used to how she looked when she slipped away and this was an entirely different expression.  A different kind of wall sat between them.

 

He reached out slowly so she could track his movements.  She flinched as his hand got closer but he kept going and finally touched her cheek, an area he was sure hadn’t been manhandled.  As the tingle and itch broke across his skin he hoped she could feel it too and remember what it meant.

 

Baal waited and eventually Carter’s body lost some of its tension.  He sat up and moved closer, touching her back in the spot Teal’c often rested his hand, and felt her relax even more.  She may not know what was going on but some part of her still remembered him, remembered them, and recognized that they meant safety.

 

He didn’t want to rush her so he stayed like that, giving Carter time to adjust to him and realize he wasn’t going to hurt her.  Being back together didn’t ease that tension that had been building in them since their separation.  He was stewing as he took in the bruises on her arms and felt the tremors suffusing her body.  Baal inched his hand along her back to her shoulder and cursed under his breath when he realized it had once again been wrenched out of its socket, surely a result of being subdued.  He’d lost count of how many times that made now.

 

Next he moved his hands to the restraints on her wrists and slowly opened them to reveal large red welts.  He bit his lip and rolled her gently onto her back, pillowing her head on his leg.  His hands ghosted across the bruises and needle marks on her inner arms and then he bent over and pressed his lips to her forehead.  He glanced briefly at the curved piece of technology affixed to the right side of her head and then decided to leave it alone.

 

Baal wanted a reaction.  Something not borne of basic survival instinct like her reaction to Dalton had been.  A blink, a groan, anything other than this automatism.  It was scaring him because he knew it wasn’t like before; it wasn’t a choice, something she had even a small degree of control over.  It was drugs and a lot of them if her arms were any indication.  And drugs weren’t something they could fight or pull her back from.  They had to run their course while they simply watched helplessly.

 

He finally looked up and met Teal’c’s eyes.  The Jaffa was slumped across the room, his utter exhaustion evident, but his eyes fixed on them.  “We have to wait,” Baal said.  Then he turned his eyes to Dalton and the others and indicated the thing on Carter’s face.  “You know what that is?”

 

Dalton edged a bit closer, not wanting to make the Colonel uncomfortable, and looked at it.  “It’s a medical transmitter.  It sends a bunch of information to a computer.”

 

“Like this one?” Baal pulled the small computer he’d swiped from his pocket.

 

“Yeah,” Dalton said and took it, punching at buttons.

 

“Can we remove it?” Baal asked.

 

“No,” Dalton said immediately, eyes wide, “Not without the proper… there’s a thing to deactivate it.  But without that pulling it off would be bad.”

 

Quest had his hand on the door and was fiddling with a small rectangular device that displayed the feed of the camera he’d left outside.  “They look like they’re discussing what to do,” he said and then looked at Dalton.  “Can you understand that?”

 

Dalton nodded as he pushed a few more buttons.  “Yeah, it’s pretty straightforward.”

 

“Does it give any indication of when the Colonel will come around?”

 

“No,” Dalton shook his head.

 

“Well what do we do?” Hayden asked.  “The whole plan depended on the Colonel getting you guys out of here.”

 

Teal’c was slowly shifting himself across the room and finally settled against the wall beside Baal.  He reached out and grabbed Carter’s hand, holding it lightly.  “As Baal said, we must wait.”

 

Everyone looked at Carter and then to the door, the same question heavy on their minds.  Would Carter come around first, or would the SGC personnel get through the door?

 

---

Greene sighed and fiddled with his weapon.  He’d been hot to trot and go after Dalton but a non-functioning elevator had held them up for the last three hours.  The techs had scratched their heads and been totally ineffective.  Their great pronouncement had finally been that they’d simply have to wait.

 

When the doors suddenly slid open Greene was so stunned that he just stared at them for a minute.  Then he pushed to his feet and walked inside.  “Let’s go!  Move it!”

 

Everyone who’d been waiting with him launched themselves from their spots and crowded into the elevator.  Greene jabbed the button and down they went.

 

---

Teal’c hadn’t felt like he’d been able to move for the longest time.  While his mind had floundered its way through something more viscous than molasses his body had seemed a distant, intangible construct.  He’d had to force every twitch of his fingers.

 

So he’d been content to watch Baal tend to Colonel Carter.  But his need to get closer, to reassure himself that she was there, had finally won out and he’d shuffled over until he’d finally achieved that vital physical contact.

 

With nothing left to do but wait for an indication that Colonel Carter was starting to come around and that it would be possible to break through, Teal’c had tilted his head back and drifted to sleep.  He knew he needed the replenishment it provided over meditation, especially since he’d only just grounded himself in reality.

 

---

Dalton couldn’t take his eyes off the three of them.  There wasn’t anything to divert his attention, only the distant banging through the cell door that attested to the outside world, so he was left to stare and think.

 

He couldn’t help thinking that this was his fault.  He’d told them Earth would be safe.  The last thing he’d said to the Colonel on that planet was it’ll be fine.  Everything was most definitely not fine. 

 

Teal’c looked like he’d been run over by a truck.  Baal seemed worn down and melancholy, his concern over the Colonel radiating off him in waves.  And the Colonel… Dalton didn’t even want to think about what she’d been through.  He’d seen the medical computer and while only the basics made sense to him he knew enough about medicine to realize the Colonel had been used and abused.

 

Dalton’s eyes drifted to his team.  And he’d dragged them into this because they’d gotten involved to help him, and then the trio because the Lieutenants were good people.  If Dalton had simply parted ways on that planet, if he hadn’t stayed with them in the maze, none of them would be here right now.

 

He thumped his head lightly against the wall in frustration and a vain effort to knock his thoughts onto another track.  The what ifs would kill him if he let them.  But he tended to be a person of action and sitting here like this only inspired doubt and recriminations.

 

If only the Colonel would show some sign of life it would do them all a world of good.

 

---

Carter had been banished by sedatives.  They’d left her stifled and frozen, totally unaware of the outside world.

 

But now, slowly, they were draining away and the curtain that had been pulled over her eyes was lifting.

 

The colour-smeared, oh-so-wrong white room was sliding back into blurry focus, everything still tilted, her vision still tunnelled. 

 

They whys and hows still escaped her grasp, but that sense of utter wrongness was coming back, along with the inexplicable urge to move. 

 

And then something else, on the peripheries of her blunted awareness.  A sensation Carter was sure she knew, one she was sure was as familiar to her as her reflection.  It danced across her skin and tickled up her spine but eluded her.  She couldn’t place what it meant, its significance, why it mattered, just that it did.

 

There was a voice as well, sliding into her hearing but slipping past her understanding.  It wasn’t the hated voice – and that came with a flicker of transient memory – but another one that was loved and trusted.

 

As the world solidified into a distant reality, but as clear as it would get, Carter blinked.

 

---

Baal knew she’d been pumped full of drugs.  He knew there was nothing they could do but wait for the chemicals to loosen their hold.  But he’d developed a ridiculous notion that if he made sure she knew they were there, that she was safe, she would suddenly be there looking back at him.

 

And so he’d kept some part of their skin in contact, sure she was aware of that tingle and itch on some level, and found himself singing one of those dumb ditties he’d composed nearly inaudibly into her ear.  If nothing else it made him feel like he was being useful.

 

He’d been staring at her face for so long that when she blinked Baal was sure he’d imagined it.  But he straightened up anyway, the movement attracting the attention of the others.  And when her eyes moved, in an achingly slow incremental fashion to track his changed position, Baal thought he’d never seen anything better.

 

“Carter?” He touched her face and felt her lean into it just a bit.