Duplications & Foothold Situations
Jul. 22nd, 2022 08:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stringertheoryTitle: Duplications & Foothold Situations
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Characters: Samantha Carter, Jack O’Neill, Daniel Jackson, Teal’c
Word Count: 1300
Categories: post-ep, drama, humor, mild angst, team as family
Spoilers: Set post-“Foothold” (3.14); spoilers for that episode and the series to that point.
Warnings: mild discussions of violence
Summary: After the nearly-successful alien takeover of the SGC, SG-1 reflects on what happened and what it means for them as a team.
The debrief from the foothold situation was a three day affair. After every statement was taken, every report filed, every ‘i’ dotted and ‘t’ crossed, SG-1 was given a mandatory week off. No coming on base, no taking work home, expected to vacate the premises by 1500 on the dot, no excuses.
The guys found Sam still in her lab at 1430. She wasn’t working on anything, just sitting at her worktop, staring blankly across the room. She jumped slightly when Daniel called her name.
“Sam?”
“Yeah?” She blinked them into focus. “Uh, hi. What’s up?”
“We’re about to be kicked out,” Jack reminded her.
“You ready to go?” Daniel asked. “We’re doing beers and pizza at Jack’s place.”
She slowly nodded. “Sure, yeah, just need to grab my things.”
She gestured vaguely toward a bag that was sitting by the door, but didn’t get up. Jack hoisted the bag onto his shoulder, playfully complaining about its weight.
“Geez, Carter, what have you got in here, one of the Gate computers? You know we aren’t allowed to take work home this time, General’s orders.”
She nodded again, that same slow cadence, as if she were doing so reflexively. She had turned and was facing them, but her eyes were fixed on Jack. It was like she was seeing him and not seeing him. He fidgeted under the scrutiny.
“I was just joking, Carter—”
“I shot you.”
Jack and Daniel shared a look, while Teal’c’s expression turned grave.
“Yeah, I know, Carter. You did what you had to do. And hey, it wasn’t actually me, so it’s okay. Though if you did have to actually shoot me, that would be okay, too.”
The slightly glazed look in Sam’s eyes cleared then and the gaze she focused on him was sharp as a scalpel.
“I shot you twice, center of the chest. You were dead before you hit the floor.” Her right hand was gripping the edge of the worktop, knuckles white. Her left was balled into a fist in her lap. They could see that it was shaking slightly.
“We read the report.” Daniel’s voice was calm, gentle without being condescending. “And we heard at the debriefing what happened, what you had to do.”
Jack knew very well exactly how deadly a shot Sam was. He could almost picture what had happened as if he’d been there.
Sam shook her head jerkily, just once, a rough dismissal. She was looking past Jack, over his shoulder into the hall, her eyes going distant again.
“I didn’t have proof yet and I’d almost started to believe that I really was just affected by the chemical, that I was hallucinating. I didn’t have proof but you lunged at me and I killed you and I didn’t even hesitate.”
“It wasn’t me.”
“It looked like you. It acted like you.”
Sam didn’t move, didn’t even shake her head in disagreement this time. Jack took a step toward her, trying to catch her gaze.
“It wasn’t me, Sam.”
Her eyes snapped to his. She looked sad and tired, but then her expression shifted closer to frustration.
“I had to trust Maybourne!”
“Definitely the worst of it,” Daniel said, trying out a smile. Sam turned to him.
“Doesn’t it worry anyone else how easy it was for those aliens to duplicate us, down to our personalities? Sir, the alien copies of you and Daniel were good enough to convince me to come back to a base I had been sure was overrun by alien invaders.”
“You and Teal’c figured it out, though, sounds like they weren’t that good at being us.” Jack was lying to them all.
“We got lucky.” Sam’s tone was bitter.
“Had Major Carter and I not been incompatible with the aliens’ duplication process, it is very likely that we, too, would have been copied and there would have been no one to raise the alarm.”
There was a long silence.
“Way to bring down the mood there, T.”
“He’s right, sir. If we hadn’t been incompatible and difficult for them to keep sedated, if I hadn’t been able to get out of the base—hell, if I hadn’t gone to D.C. to meet with Maybourne, we might never have stopped the invasion.” Sam ran a hand through her hair. “The only thing that saved us was that we put those aliens on a plane. If their masking technology hadn’t been affected by the sound of that particular plane’s engines…”
“We’d have been screwed,” Daniel finished for her.
Sam nodded. “Royally.”
“But we did and we weren’t and we… shan’t.” Jack waved a hand ineffectually. “We stopped them from taking over the world and we saved the day again and all that jazz.”
Sam shook her head again. “I don’t care about them taking over the world.” She froze, grimaced. “I mean, I do care about that, but that’s not the point.”
“You are afraid that we will hurt one another should this happen again,” Teal’c said.
Sam sighed. “Yeah. I mean, how do we know whether it’s really us or not? When I was taken over by Jolinar, I was still in there and none of you wanted to do anything that would hurt me because of it. But you only knew that it was actually me because we’d encountered the Goa’uld before. What if it was another type of possession that we didn’t know about or couldn’t prove, or another form of duplication that we couldn’t detect? What if something looked like us but we couldn’t prove whether it was or not and we had to make another split second, life or death decision?”
“You’ve been thinking about this a lot,” Daniel mused.
“For about four days now, yeah.”
“We can’t.”
Everyone looked at Jack. He shrugged.
“We can’t know, not every time. Just like we didn’t know this time until after the fact. I had no idea anything was abnormal until I woke up strapped into the world’s worst swing set.”
“After I killed you.”
“Yes, Carter, after you killed the alien pretending to be me,” Jack replied, a hint of frustration in his tone. “My point is, we can’t know everything and things are going to go wrong sometimes, so there’s no use worrying about it. All we can do is trust each other, and I trust you. I trust all of you with my life. That’s gotten us through everything so far, so I’m gonna stick with it. And like I said: if any of you ever have to shoot me for the greater good or whatever, no hard feelings.”
“That was very… profound, Jack.”
“Thank you.”
“I, too, trust my life to you, O’Neill.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re gonna save each other and all that, but how about we start with getting the beer and pizzas. Carter’s buying the first six pack since she killed me.”
Sam rolled her eyes, but she was finally smiling a bit as she slid off her stool. Daniel and Teal’c led the way toward the elevators, Jack following behind with Sam after she shut her lab door.
“Y’know I had to deck fake Doc Fraiser.”
Sam’s lips twitched. “So you reported. You okay?”
“It was… weird. But given the amount of times she’s stabbed me with a needle, slightly therapeutic? I mean, I would never actually punch the Doc—”
“Unless she was a danger to the base and had to be stopped.”
“Exactly. See? You get it, Carter. Problem is, I can’t look her in the eyes now. And she knows why. She knows everything.”
Sam adopted a solemn expression as they joined Daniel and Teal’c in the elevator to start their trip topside.
“Well, sir, you have a whole week to recover.”
He gave her a smile. “So do you.”
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Characters: Samantha Carter, Jack O’Neill, Daniel Jackson, Teal’c
Word Count: 1300
Categories: post-ep, drama, humor, mild angst, team as family
Spoilers: Set post-“Foothold” (3.14); spoilers for that episode and the series to that point.
Warnings: mild discussions of violence
Summary: After the nearly-successful alien takeover of the SGC, SG-1 reflects on what happened and what it means for them as a team.
The debrief from the foothold situation was a three day affair. After every statement was taken, every report filed, every ‘i’ dotted and ‘t’ crossed, SG-1 was given a mandatory week off. No coming on base, no taking work home, expected to vacate the premises by 1500 on the dot, no excuses.
The guys found Sam still in her lab at 1430. She wasn’t working on anything, just sitting at her worktop, staring blankly across the room. She jumped slightly when Daniel called her name.
“Sam?”
“Yeah?” She blinked them into focus. “Uh, hi. What’s up?”
“We’re about to be kicked out,” Jack reminded her.
“You ready to go?” Daniel asked. “We’re doing beers and pizza at Jack’s place.”
She slowly nodded. “Sure, yeah, just need to grab my things.”
She gestured vaguely toward a bag that was sitting by the door, but didn’t get up. Jack hoisted the bag onto his shoulder, playfully complaining about its weight.
“Geez, Carter, what have you got in here, one of the Gate computers? You know we aren’t allowed to take work home this time, General’s orders.”
She nodded again, that same slow cadence, as if she were doing so reflexively. She had turned and was facing them, but her eyes were fixed on Jack. It was like she was seeing him and not seeing him. He fidgeted under the scrutiny.
“I was just joking, Carter—”
“I shot you.”
Jack and Daniel shared a look, while Teal’c’s expression turned grave.
“Yeah, I know, Carter. You did what you had to do. And hey, it wasn’t actually me, so it’s okay. Though if you did have to actually shoot me, that would be okay, too.”
The slightly glazed look in Sam’s eyes cleared then and the gaze she focused on him was sharp as a scalpel.
“I shot you twice, center of the chest. You were dead before you hit the floor.” Her right hand was gripping the edge of the worktop, knuckles white. Her left was balled into a fist in her lap. They could see that it was shaking slightly.
“We read the report.” Daniel’s voice was calm, gentle without being condescending. “And we heard at the debriefing what happened, what you had to do.”
Jack knew very well exactly how deadly a shot Sam was. He could almost picture what had happened as if he’d been there.
Sam shook her head jerkily, just once, a rough dismissal. She was looking past Jack, over his shoulder into the hall, her eyes going distant again.
“I didn’t have proof yet and I’d almost started to believe that I really was just affected by the chemical, that I was hallucinating. I didn’t have proof but you lunged at me and I killed you and I didn’t even hesitate.”
“It wasn’t me.”
“It looked like you. It acted like you.”
Sam didn’t move, didn’t even shake her head in disagreement this time. Jack took a step toward her, trying to catch her gaze.
“It wasn’t me, Sam.”
Her eyes snapped to his. She looked sad and tired, but then her expression shifted closer to frustration.
“I had to trust Maybourne!”
“Definitely the worst of it,” Daniel said, trying out a smile. Sam turned to him.
“Doesn’t it worry anyone else how easy it was for those aliens to duplicate us, down to our personalities? Sir, the alien copies of you and Daniel were good enough to convince me to come back to a base I had been sure was overrun by alien invaders.”
“You and Teal’c figured it out, though, sounds like they weren’t that good at being us.” Jack was lying to them all.
“We got lucky.” Sam’s tone was bitter.
“Had Major Carter and I not been incompatible with the aliens’ duplication process, it is very likely that we, too, would have been copied and there would have been no one to raise the alarm.”
There was a long silence.
“Way to bring down the mood there, T.”
“He’s right, sir. If we hadn’t been incompatible and difficult for them to keep sedated, if I hadn’t been able to get out of the base—hell, if I hadn’t gone to D.C. to meet with Maybourne, we might never have stopped the invasion.” Sam ran a hand through her hair. “The only thing that saved us was that we put those aliens on a plane. If their masking technology hadn’t been affected by the sound of that particular plane’s engines…”
“We’d have been screwed,” Daniel finished for her.
Sam nodded. “Royally.”
“But we did and we weren’t and we… shan’t.” Jack waved a hand ineffectually. “We stopped them from taking over the world and we saved the day again and all that jazz.”
Sam shook her head again. “I don’t care about them taking over the world.” She froze, grimaced. “I mean, I do care about that, but that’s not the point.”
“You are afraid that we will hurt one another should this happen again,” Teal’c said.
Sam sighed. “Yeah. I mean, how do we know whether it’s really us or not? When I was taken over by Jolinar, I was still in there and none of you wanted to do anything that would hurt me because of it. But you only knew that it was actually me because we’d encountered the Goa’uld before. What if it was another type of possession that we didn’t know about or couldn’t prove, or another form of duplication that we couldn’t detect? What if something looked like us but we couldn’t prove whether it was or not and we had to make another split second, life or death decision?”
“You’ve been thinking about this a lot,” Daniel mused.
“For about four days now, yeah.”
“We can’t.”
Everyone looked at Jack. He shrugged.
“We can’t know, not every time. Just like we didn’t know this time until after the fact. I had no idea anything was abnormal until I woke up strapped into the world’s worst swing set.”
“After I killed you.”
“Yes, Carter, after you killed the alien pretending to be me,” Jack replied, a hint of frustration in his tone. “My point is, we can’t know everything and things are going to go wrong sometimes, so there’s no use worrying about it. All we can do is trust each other, and I trust you. I trust all of you with my life. That’s gotten us through everything so far, so I’m gonna stick with it. And like I said: if any of you ever have to shoot me for the greater good or whatever, no hard feelings.”
“That was very… profound, Jack.”
“Thank you.”
“I, too, trust my life to you, O’Neill.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re gonna save each other and all that, but how about we start with getting the beer and pizzas. Carter’s buying the first six pack since she killed me.”
Sam rolled her eyes, but she was finally smiling a bit as she slid off her stool. Daniel and Teal’c led the way toward the elevators, Jack following behind with Sam after she shut her lab door.
“Y’know I had to deck fake Doc Fraiser.”
Sam’s lips twitched. “So you reported. You okay?”
“It was… weird. But given the amount of times she’s stabbed me with a needle, slightly therapeutic? I mean, I would never actually punch the Doc—”
“Unless she was a danger to the base and had to be stopped.”
“Exactly. See? You get it, Carter. Problem is, I can’t look her in the eyes now. And she knows why. She knows everything.”
Sam adopted a solemn expression as they joined Daniel and Teal’c in the elevator to start their trip topside.
“Well, sir, you have a whole week to recover.”
He gave her a smile. “So do you.”