Ripple Effect - Confluence of Circumstance - Chapter 12
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, I am only playing in the world
A/N: Here is another side story / companion piece to my series of SG-1 tales. This one will be different to the others in that I plan to keep adding to it little by little. It may spur me to add on to the other Ripple Effects later on.
Previously: Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 | Ch 8 | Ch 9 | Ch 10 | Ch 11
Ripple Effect - Confluence of Circumstance - Chapter 12
Stargate Command, April 2006 (alternate reality)
"Why don't you ever ask me about the you from my reality, Teal'c?" she asked with a glance at the Jaffa warrior as he moved slowly in front of one of her shelves as she checked the connections between the Tok'ra long-range subspace communicator and the small computer she'd set up to control it. Teal'c paused in his examination and glanced at her over his shoulder. "I know, I know, 'this is the only reality of consequence', but aren't you even curious?"
"I am curious as to why you believe it is of consequence, Colonel Carter." he intoned as he resumed his scrutiny of one of the finds they'd made in Merlin's vault under Glastonbury Tor, Dr. Lee had brought it to her and she'd noticed a few things which might get him back on track with the device. She'd take it back to his lab to set it up, hers was cluttered enough as it was. "I have noticed subtle differences in your personality from that of the original Colonel Carter, but nothing I would consider meaningful, or which could not be explained by current circumstances." He lifted his gaze from the oddly shaped input device to glance her way once more. "I expect things are much the same with your evaluation of myself. Or you would make far more mention of any such distinctions." He smiled ever so slightly when she grumbled. He had a point.
"I guess humans are just more interested in that sort of thing than Jaffa." she muttered and he nodded slightly.
"This was part of Merlin's hoard." he mentioned, making her smile a little. He did like to indulge her lecture-mode every so often.
"That's what I've heard, Bill brought it to me. He's a little stumped by it and thought I might be able to take a crack at it. Otherwise it will be sent to Area 51 and getting anything back from them is tough." She paused in her calibrations as she remembered how anxious Dr. Lee had been for her to look over the device. "He thinks it's important." Teal'c nodded, they liked to rib the bespectacled scientist, but they all had a soft spot for him too. Some even a grudging respect.
"Have you learned anything?" he asked as he turned to face her. She nodded.
"Enough that I want to set it up in his lab again to spend more time on it." she replied as she fixed a last connection to the power generator and the communicator came to life. "As soon as I get this up and running with the final version of the protocol we reverse-engineered from the telemetry from Daniel's communication stone." She grinned when she glanced over at the display attached to the small computer as it flashed various diagnostics before prompting her to continue. She quickly typed in some commands to get a bit more in-depth data on the checks before she set the main program to execute.
"Hey! The lights are blinking!" came Cameron's voice from her door as she glanced over, smiling. "That is pretty cool." he murmured, casting an appraising look over the crystal and metal framework of the communicator. "So it's on? What's it doing?"
"Just listening. It's all out of our hands from now on." she said with a smile as he came over and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. She lay her hand over the top of his.
"Right, right, still don't know what this is all about though." he said with a lifted brow and she bit her lip, having forgotten that. She was about to speak when the klaxons started wailing and lights started flashing a warning for an unscheduled wormhole and they all stood and headed out the door towards the control room. It was probably just a team coming in ahead of their expected arrival time, but you never knew.
Colorado Springs, April 2006 (alternate reality)
Cam leaned over slightly as he steered around the bend and smiled when Sam's hands around his waist tightened just a little to compensate. The feel of her pressed tightly against his back, even through two layers of leather, was his own idea of Heaven just at that moment. He throttled back on his silver on blue '71 Moto Guzzi California. It had been his Dad's bike, given to Cam when he got his license - a little to his mother's horror. He remembered how his father had doted on the air-cooled V-twin for the couple of years before he'd gifted the machine to him. Rebuilding the engine had been the project that got Frank Mitchell metaphorically back on his feet after his crash and forced retirement from the Air Force. He'd struggled for a couple of years; taken a job as a consultant with an aeronautics firm out of Topeka, but it had been rebuilding the motorcycle which had really brought back the man from where he'd holed up in the depths of his own psyche. Which is why Cameron would love this bike for the rest of his days. Having Sam clutching at the front of his jacket as she rode pillion was a nice inducement too.
He pulled off onto the gravelled lane to an overlook spot across from the city itself and cut the engine after he put his foot out and came to a stop. Sam patted his stomach once before getting off the back as he put out the kickstand and dismounted himself. She took off her helmet and shook out her blonde locks. She looked amazing, even if her hair was still plastered to her forehead a little. He pulled his helmet off and hooked it over his handlebar and took off his gloves as she leaned forward to kiss him gently. He smiled and pulled his fingers lightly through her fringe. She smiled and blew air through her pursed lips to send it aflutter before laying her own helmet atop the pillion. She took a deep breath of the crisp spring air and let it out slowly before moving to gaze out over the view. Cam moved up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist while she leaned back against him.
They'd been riding several times now, sometimes they both rode his Moto Guzzi, at other times they went out with Sam on her '47 Indian Chief. Unfortunately, it didn't have a pillion seat of its own so they couldn't ride tandem on it. He had to admit he loved seeing her Indian, it was a beautiful machine, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't prefer the days they went out together on his California. He was struck by the reminder they'd soon have another choice open to them. He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out his phone, holding it in front of them both and switching to the photo gallery. Sam turned her head to look at him quizzically for a moment, but she faced forward again and looked down at the phone and the picture he'd queued up of a gleaming inline four B20E resting up on a stand in his garage with it's silvered rocker casing sitting atop the cylinder head, which was brightly painted in red. He'd taken the picture the night before just after he'd finished reassembling everything. Sam lifted her hand and covered her mouth with her fingers.
"Cameron, that's..." she breathed and he nodded, her hair rustling against his cheek.
"Just need to lift it back in and recouple it to the drivetrain, hydraulics and electrics and she's good to go." he concluded and her breath hitched. "Still needs a test of course, but I'm confident."
"Can I... see..." she faltered as her emotions overwhelmed her and he smiled at that.
"Of course, sweetness." he murmured into her ear and she shrugged her shoulders at the tone of his voice before turning her head to look at him with a smile. "I want you to be there." She turned around in his arms and nuzzled his cheek before finding his lips with hers. "I want to see your smile when you hear her roar to life." She smiled and let out a low purr before kissing him again and running her hands through the hair at the back of his head.
"When?" she asked after some rather breathless kisses.
"Next weekend?" he offered and she nodded. Snuggling against him and resting her head in the crook of his neck. "I think she's missed you, your P1800." he whispered.
"I've missed her." she admitted softly. "Do you have more pictures?" she asked after a moment and he chuckled, holding up the phone again and letting her flick through the pictures he'd been taking all along the process. She smiled happily, asking him what it was she had missed when she attempted to fix her poorly Volvo. He moved them to one of the picnic tables off to the side and began telling her in detail all about what he'd done since stripping the engine all those months ago. He smiled when she reached to hold his hand after he mentioned how he'd taken possession of the car after Sam's passing. He put his other hand over hers and nodded as she leaned against his side while he continued with the recitation of his work log.
Stargate Command, April 2006 (alternate reality)
"Okay, Dr. Super Genius. Explain to me how come I don't fall through the floor when I'm out of phase?" he asked with a condescending tilt of his head and his hands on his hips. She sighed.
"Because your brain can't handle the idea of the ground under your feet not being solid." She looked down at his feet with a smirk. "Do you really think you're actually standing on that floor right now?"
"What are you talking about?" he cried with a glare then hopped from foot to foot. "Of course I-" he stopped and his eyes widened as she slowly sank into the concrete below her feet. "Don't... don't do that!" He grabbed at her arm and pulled her up. "Never do that again!" She laughed.
"It's all in your head, Cam. Just like you feel uncomfortable letting people walk through you so you step out of their way. Your brain is hard-wired to walk on solid ground so it's tricking you into believing you're actually walking on concrete instead of... well, nothing. I mean, have you heard any sound from your footsteps since we got zapped?" He glared at her and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Okay, so how come we're not pulled to the center of the Earth by gravity, or flung off into space by inertia?" he demanded.
"Because I don't think gravity has any effect in this dimension, Cam, classical mechanics definitely doesn't seem to apply and will seems to be the impetus of all motion. The only thing keeping us in Earth's general frame of reference is our primitive hind-brain not accepting the fact we're mostly decoupled from the three physical dimensions of space." She grinned at him. "You believe you're standing on that spot, and so you are." He cursed and scrubbed at his eyes with the heels of his palms.
"I wish you hadn't told me any of that." he admitted to her light laughter.
"Just don't think about it and you'll be okay." She smirked at him. "You're good at that." He turned a glare on her and began stalking towards her as she giggled and backed up. He started moving more quickly and she began chuckling and turning around to beat a hasty retreat.
"Get back here, you..." he growled and began to run after her through the corridors, heedless of passing through the occasional airman or scientist. She laughed and darted through a wall only for him to follow after her. "You can't get away from me, woman!" She let him catch her somewhere near the infirmary and he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up off the 'floor' as she giggled breathlessly. He turned her around and made to push her back against a wall, only for them to pass through into the infirmary itself. He growled. "Okay, so how come my brain isn't tricking me into believing the walls are solid too?" She smiled and slipped her arms over his shoulders and around his neck, then kissed him gently as he held her tightly against him.
"Remember that we walk through spaces which matter usually occupies all the time, doorways, bushes, tall grass, even fog and mist. For some reason our brains aren't as fussy about the solidity of vertical surfaces as they are of horizontal surfaces." she murmured, biting lightly on his lower lip. He lifted an eyebrow and glanced at one of the infirmary beds. She followed his gaze and laughed. "Not all horizontal surfaces! Things which are obviously objects definitely fall into the category of acceptable candidates for intangibility." She slipped out of his arms and moved her hand through the bed, then glanced over her shoulder with a smile and tried again only for her hand to stop atop the covered mattress. She then hopped up and perched herself on it, laughing at his incredulous look.
He glared at her and walked over to the bed, frowning heavily at it for several moments. He reached out and laid his hand over it only for it to provide no barrier to his fingers. She laughed and flicked at his chin with a finger before putting on her best attempt at a Laurence Fishburne tone of voice.
"Do you believe that my being stronger or faster has anything to do with my muscles, in this place? Do you think that's air you're breathing now?" She grinned as his lips drew into a tight line and he scowled at her. "Honestly, Cameron. Electromagnetic repulsion ordinarily keeps our hands from passing through solid matter in the three physical dimensions of space, but since we're not completely in the three physical dimensions of space we can only interact with other objects in this dimension. I'm not actually sitting on this bed, not really. We can't physically interact with any matter in normal space, even the air we breathe. The only reason you're breathing in and out is because your brain believes it has to. I doubt our cells even need oxygen while in this state." He closed his eyes and sighed and she hopped off the bed again. "I'm just glad that electromagnetism still let's me kiss you since we're both here together." She smiled and leaned into him and sought his lips with hers.
"All hail Maxwell." Cam muttered in between kisses and she smiled against his lips, only slightly surprised he remembered his elementary physics.
Stargate Command, May 2006 (alternate reality)
Cameron glared balefully at Daniel in the elevator next to him. Daniel gave him a coquettish tilt of his head and looked right back at him with his hands splayed out over his hips. Cam shuddered slightly at the visual and if he wasn't so sure that it was actually Vala Mal Doran inhabiting Daniel's body at that moment he'd have thought his friend had gone and touched some bit of alien junk that had scrambled his little grey cells. Actually, he still wasn't sure that's not what actually happened.
"Yes and no, Vala." he said in reply to her earlier entreaty. Vala in Daniel's body frowned slightly in confusion.
"Now, Cameron, your answer doesn't make any sense." she muttered leaning in a bit closer. "Either you told her you loved her or you didn't." Cam's lips drew into a tight line as he lifted a finger to prod Vala's forehead and push her back slightly.
"I didn't tell Sam I loved her, not before she died." he replied quietly. Vala's jaw went slack in shock as the face she was borrowing from Daniel paled visibly.
"She died?" she asked in a hoarse whisper, pain etched across her face. "Cameron, I'm so sorry." He looked her way with a grateful smile. He was glad of the genuine emotion Vala was displaying, it was for a real person after all and more surprising for her only having known the woman for a couple of days before being sucked into a different galaxy. The elevator opened and he stepped out into the corridor, stopping when Vala didn't follow him, the pained grimace still prevalent on Daniel's face. "Cameron, I'm confused." He nodded, motioning for her to follow.
"I know, it's a confusing situation." he said simply, leading the bodysnatching woman forward. She bounded around him and stopped him with a hand on his chest.
"You said... you said we were going to see her." she began. He nodded. "And that answer you gave to my question... Are we going to talk to a ghost?" He looked at her incredulously.
"What?" He blinked and frowned slightly. "Why would you think 'ghost'?" Vala looked at him in confusion. "Vala, you're talking to me across the vast gulf of galaxies using my friend's body as a glorified telephone. You fell through a black hole to get where you are!" She glared at him with her hands on her hips and he sighed, reaching out and leading her forward with a tug on Daniel's elbow. "We're going to see Sam, she's just not the Sam you knew, she's from an alternate reality. And I told her I love her." he finished. Vala again bounded around him with a scrutinising look in her borrowed eyes. She stopped him once more with a hand on his chest, just before the door to the commissary.
"You told her?" she asked and he nodded, walking around his friend and tugging on an elbow to get them moving once more.
"Yes, I told her I love her." He stood in the doorway and spotted Sam eating some jello in the next row over. He smiled and pointed her out to Vala, who blinked in confusion.
"She looks alive." the smuggler said hesitantly with a half-hearted grin. Cam frowned at her before moving towards Sam's table. He couldn't help his own smile when she looked up and gave him a bright grin. She glanced at who she thought was Daniel and then looked down to scoop up some more jello.
"How is this possible?" he asked, pointing the fingers of both hands towards Vala, who put her hands on Daniel's hips and canted her head while she looked at Sam. She slowly pulled the spoon from her mouth as she looked at him in confusion. Then her eyes widened in a mixture of realisation and delight and Cam closed his eyes momentarily to keep from being blinded by the sight.
"Oh, my God! It worked!" Sam cried and he opened his eyes to see her rushing around the table and throwing her arms around Daniel's shoulders. Which made Vala jump in surprise. "It's so good to see you, Vala!" She pulled back slightly with a chuckle at what she was saying, then she glanced at Cameron for a moment before turning more solemn and returning her gaze to the startled bodysnatcher. "And thank you. Thank you so much." Vala looked at Cam in confusion as Sam again hugged her tight. She awkwardly patted the blonde on the back.
"What, um, for, Colonel Carter?" she asked hesitantly.
"For saving this reality from the Ori." Sam replied seriously as she finally pulled back and came to stand next to Cam and slipped her hand in his. Vala looked down at their entwined fingers and just grinned.
"I have no idea what's going on, but I love it when someone praises me. Especially for something as grand as that!" She rubbed her hands together. "So what's the going rate for saving the galaxy? No!" She held up a finger in front of them as her grin spread wider. "An entire reality."
"I'll buy you breakfast later." Cam deadpanned with a look at Sam, at which she smiled sheepishly in reply. Oh, yes, she had some explaining to do. Daniel's face betrayed Vala's shock and dismay as she sputtered at the injustice. Cam just rolled his eyes and pointed back out of the commissary. Sam smiled at him before shepherding the protesting thief from the room.
"As your saviour I demand chocolate ice cream!" Vala cried in Daniel's voice while everyone in the commissary watched them leave.
On to Chapter 13