Ripple Effect - Confluence of Circumstance - Chapter 11
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
Ripple Effect - Confluence of Circumstance - Chapter 11
The Pentagon, Washington D.C., March 2006 (alternate reality)
"Sam. Good to see you again, that is, if you know me... or knew me." said a voice from behind them as they walked down a nondescript corridor inside the headquarters of the Department of Defense. Cam turned around to spot Agent Malcolm Barrett of the NID and Sam smiled warmly as she shook Barrett's hand with an admonition for assuming she wouldn't know him. The agent turned and greeted Cam as well. "Colonel Mitchell, I've read a lot about you, and I understand you're the one we should all thank for Sam being here." Cam shook the agent's hand and shrugged the shoulders of his dress blues.
"I just selfishly seized an opportunity." he admitted. He glanced at Sam and basked for a moment in her radiant smile. "We have been sent here, Agent Barrett, to inform you and your peers that the galaxy is infested with corn." he said mock-seriously. "Evil space corn, with plans to invade our own fair planet."
"Cameron..." Sam said with a hint of warning in her tone as Agent Barrett simply adopted a poker face.
"That is very grave news, Colonel, I'm sure any information you may have for us with regards to this... corn... will be very carefully considered." he intoned in exactly the same tone Cam used.
"Malcolm!" Sam cried in astonishment. Cam just grinned at her.
"Come on, Sam. If you can't laugh at evil space corn you just haven't watched enough B-movies." he said reproachfully. "Ain't that right, Barrett?" Cam asked with a glance.
"Absolutely. Still, don't worry, Sam, we will be entirely serious once inside the briefing room." He leaned in and held his hand up for an aside. "The IOA will be joining us."
"And everyone knows none of us have a sense of humour." intoned Richard Woolsey from behind Agent Barrett. "Good morning to all of you. It's good to see you both once again Colonel Mitchell, Colonel Carter, whatever the circumstances." he said with a glance towards Sam. "It will be good working with you again, Agent Barrett."
"As always, Mr. Woolsey." Barrett said with a smile.
"What brings the IOA to this little shindig, Mr. Woolsey?" asked Cam with a little hint of suspicion.
"Anything such as this, which is specifically targeted at civilians, is of great concern to the IOA, Colonel." explained Woolsey. "The potential ramifications are unfathomable." Cam had to tilt his head in agreement when he looked at Sam.
"We'll tell you all we know and answer any questions you have, Mr. Woolsey. Though things fell apart rather quickly on P6G-452." Sam said and Cam unconsciously rubbed the left side of his face.
"My bad." he muttered and smiled slightly when Sam threw him an understanding glance and a sigh.
They began walking towards the briefing room, but Sam stopped after Agent Barrett laid a hand on her arm. She nodded for Cam to continue on inside when he turned and he nodded back to her before following behind Woolsey. Cam's part of this particular day's briefing was to lay out in minute detail what the SGC knew of the Lucian Alliance's likely sphere of influence and military disposition. It wasn't much and it wasn't as accurate as it could be, but then again the Alliance didn't make a habit of flaunting their strength, they were mainly a criminal organisation gone quasi-governmental on an interstellar scale. They controlled planets and shipping and held a sizeable chunk of infrastructure left behind after the fall of the Goa'uld. At least, what wasn't consumed by the Replicators.
Still, all of it marked the Lucian Alliance as a threat, and would have positioned them as a primary adversary of Earth if it hadn't been for the Ori. Especially with one of their motherships being harried by the Asgard all over the opposite side of the galaxy. The Tok'ra did what they could with the limited resources available to them, but they're main concern was still consolidation and their new birthing program they were working on alongside the Asgard. They still made formidable gatherers of intelligence, though they tended to masquerade as humans more often than not in the new galactic climate. The Free Jaffa saw the most dealings with the Lucian Alliance and had no love for them at all, but they were still fractured internally, especially since Gerak turned to Origin and then just as quickly sacrificed himself to help put an end to what surely would have been the end of Earth as a viable power in the galaxy. Essentially the presence of the Ori only made the Alliance more dangerous. It gave them free reign to act with impunity in many parts of the galaxy, and Earth currently had one battlecruiser, formidable as Odyssey may be, with which to do anything about it.
Sam's portion of that day's briefing had to do with kassa itself. What the plant was and how it worked on a biochemical level on the brains of those who ate it, then branched out into the general methods the Alliance used in order to cultivate and harvest it. Since they sold it as a regular foodstuff instead of something illicit, it usually took a hold of a population even before anyone knew what it did, and usually out in the open where, of course, no one was paying attention. As a maize-like cereal it shared many similarities with varieties of field corn indigenous to Earth, which meant it could essentially be inserted into the Terran food supply almost invisibly. Keeping kassa off Earth therefore, was a very high priority.
The briefing broke up after Sam's presentation with their combined question and answer sessions scheduled for the next day, to give the various participants a chance to absorb any new information and formulate enquiries. Cam sagged slightly in the chair as everyone made their way out and stood up when Sam walked over to his seat.
"Ready to get out of here?" he asked with a hopeful look. She smiled at him, but shook her head.
"Agent Barrett asked to talk with me after the meeting, how about we get together in a little while? There's a pub in Crystal City close by Reagan International, called O'Reardon's." She tilted her head in confusion when he scowled and turned aside. "What is it, Cam?"
"I have... bad memories of O'Reardon's." he said softly then looked at her in confusion when she blinked in surprise. "Back in '93, I went to meet you," he frowned slightly when there was no recognition in her eyes, "you told me you were dating Hanson and slapped me across the face when I called him a douchebag." She looked at him incredulously.
"What? I dated Hanson? Jonas Hanson?" She nearly gagged, then her eyes widened. "I slapped you?" He looked at her in surprise as she just raised a hand to his cheek. "That never..." She looked at him for a long moment, her gaze changing to one of concern. "We can talk about it if you want, Cam, later, somewhere not O'Reardon's." He nodded, his mind racing at this unexpected difference between his reality and hers.
"Was your Cam's call-sign 'Shaft'?" he asked softly and she nodded. That hadn't changed then.
"He changed it sometime after I left the Gulf, after he transferred to Japan." she replied. Definitely hadn't changed. "He never told me why."
"You never went to Galar." he breathed and she looked at him askance. "Later." he croaked and gave her arm a squeeze. "You said Agent Barrett wanted to speak with you." She nodded with a little frown. "Call me, I'm on my cell." She nodded again and leaned forward to kiss him lightly before turning to leave. He sat down heavily and let his head fall into his hands for several minutes.
The Pentagon, Washington D.C., March 2006 (alternate reality)
She watched him for a moment from the door, her heart aching fiercely as she watched his head hanging down, clutched in his hands. What could have happened to him. What connected O'Reardon's in '93, his transfer to Japan, him changing his call-sign, and Galar of all places. And her dating Jonas Hanson? Holy Hannah, no. The man had been a pit viper in her reality. She was decidedly worried for Cameron and almost wanted to tell Malcolm she couldn't go, but something told her this was a conversation they would need to have. The sooner the better. She walked out and headed for the elevator in the direction she knew led to the NID offices.
After flashing her ID badge several times and nodding her way through a couple of security checkpoints she finally arrived at Agent Barrett's office at the main NID department agency. He smiled and grabbed his jacket as he motioned for her to head back out.
"We're going somewhere?" she asked apprehensively.
"Well, I was hoping we could do a bit of comparative analysis between our different realities. And a bit of catching up." he mentioned with a light smile. Sam frowned slightly.
"I'd like to catch up, Malcolm, I'm sure you can appreciate how important it is for me to make sure I meet with friends of Sam's who will have questions or problems now that I am here, essentially usurping her identity." she said softly. "Only, I'm not sure I have a lot of time for anything that will take a while tonight."
"I understand, I'm just wondering whether in your reality you and the other me," he paused and chuckled, "that just sounds so strange when I say it. I was wondering if we worked together to find Ba'al while he was hiding here on Earth?" Sam's eyes widened precipitously and she stopped walking in the middle of the corridor.
"Ba'al was here on Earth?" she asked in a piercing whisper as she looked around. Barrett chuckled and motioned her on towards the elevator even as she stared at him incredulously. "I really have to read those mission reports from before I arrived. Could he still be here? Or some of his clones?" That was something she'd had trouble believing when she came through to this reality, that Ba'al had a small army of clones of himself running around, but after hearing about his death at least twice since arriving she had to believe it. He pressed the button for the ground floor before replying.
"As far as we know, not anymore, but we're still looking. We've been pretty hard on the Trust. Athena is still out there, but as far as Ba'al goes, he's changed his plans to focus off Earth." he said before the elevator disgorged them not too far from the front entrance. Malcolm looked at her with a hint of hopefulness in his eyes and Sam had to shake her head slightly as they began walking towards the security checkpoint. "I understand things must be a little up in the air for you right now, what with taking over a dead woman's life and trying to make sure the people you knew remember you in mostly similar ways. Well, I'll just say it, during that mission, Sam mentioned that she was kinda seeing someone. And I was wondering if that still applied." Sam looked at him sadly and sighed. He was a good guy, but he still held on to a hope she would see him as more than a friend, which she just couldn't.
"Not kinda. Not anymore." she replied and he blinked. "I'm really sorry, Malcolm. I think you're a great guy, but for a long time when I think of my future I've only been able to see one person." They were past all the checkpoints and walking across the broad foyer leading towards the main entrance.
"And now..." he prompted. She looked up and spotted Cameron just making his way through a door to the outside, he turned his head and spotted her almost as if she'd called out to him. He smiled softly as he lifted his cover on to his head and she canted her head slightly to the side. He glanced at Barrett next to her as the doors closed, but took her drift and stopped a little ways from the doors.
"And he is my future. Even here." she replied, turning to face Barrett. "I'm sorry, Malcolm. I have to go now. I hope you can understand." Barrett was still looking where her eyes had been following Cam in his dress blues and she saw the understanding building in his gaze.
"Yeah, Sam." he replied with a smile. "Next time you're in D.C. maybe we can grab some coffee, as friends." She nodded and touched his arm for a moment before heading for the door.
Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C., March 2006 (alternate reality)
She was holding his hand as he looked up at the great statue of Abraham Lincoln gazing down the reflecting pool towards the tall needle of the Washington Monument. He always felt calm whenever he came here, to stand under the gaze of someone who'd seen some of the darkest moments of America's history as a nation. He closed his eyes and sighed as he turned around and pulled Sam along down the steps to the edge of the water. She gripped his hand tightly, unsure what was happening with him. He was gripping her hand a little tightly in return as well, he was afraid though. Afraid she'd run from him. He realised he had to give her that choice, so he let her hand go. She looked down at their hands for a moment before releasing her own grip in confusion.
"You read the reports about Galar?" he asked softly and she nodded, having gone over them when she'd been asked to take the Galaran memory device to Petersen so Cam could share his memories with Lt. Colonel Ferguson. "I feel bad for Lieutenant Lewis. She was only supposed to come to check over the viability of the tech." Sam tilted her head to the side. She knew Lieutenant Riley Lewis, bright young red-head, newly minted out of the Academy and specially selected for the SGC thanks to her technical aptitude. Sam realised the young woman had probably only been on that mission because Sam had died the month before.
"Cam, I know what's in the reports, I know you were accused of murdering a Galaran scientist, a Dr. Reya Varick." she said softly, conscious of the proximity of any tourists on this chilly evening as dusk set in. "I know you were proved innocent though, that the memory of the crime was implanted into your head." He nodded.
"Riley was out of her depth after the murder." he said with a sigh. "She was given the impossible task of monitoring what the Galarans were doing at the same time as she was trying to keep me sane. And I don't even want to know what she must have been thinking of me as her commanding officer, accused of murder, confessed to it even, and then managing to exonerate himself by admitting to committing something just as bad." He shook his head. "If Sam had been there..." He turned to look at Sam. "If you had been there..."
"I read about that, Cam, I just didn't know what it meant." she admitted. "Something just as bad?" He closed his eyes still unprepared to talk about that, not until he admitted some other things first.
"My memories of that night on Galar are still hazy, there are gaps." He looked at her with his brows furrowed. "You... Sam had died a few weeks before, I could only throw myself in the work to keep from thinking about it. She... Reya reminded me of you in many ways. A scientist, passionate about her work and about sharing her knowledge with her fellow Galarans. She smiled at me and it hurt a little less." He had to look down as the sight of Sam's eyes was making him very uncomfortable, it wasn't a look of betrayal or anger, just depths of understanding. "I couldn't in the end, it was far too soon. I know that much. I'm sure of it. That's something I know through all the blurriness and gaps and false memories." He took a deep breath and looked down along the water as the last rays of the setting sun flickered slightly over the wind-whipped surface. "I had to prove I didn't kill her though and it nearly broke me." he admitted and she slipped a hand in his. He looked down and closed his eyes. "I had to relive it, the murder, over and over." She gripped his hand almost painfully. "And it was useless, they couldn't tell if it was fake. Not without something to compare it to." He glanced up at her then. "Something I had actually done, something... comparable."
"What does that mean, Cameron. I can't believe you've ever-" She stopped when he laid his fingers over her lips.
"Let me finish, Sam." he breathed and he let his hand drop after she nodded. "Not long after you left for the Pentagon, I was transferred to the 19th FS out of Al Dhafra in the Emirates..." He needed to move, he couldn't just stand here like this. He pulled Sam along around the side of the pool and began walking down its length. As his feet stepped one in front of the other, slowly, rhythmically, he managed to tell her about the mission shadowing the convoy, about how the intel led them to believe the leader of a a terrorist group with ties to several training camps throughout the Middle East was travelling in one of the vehicles, and how it had been his thumb which had launched the bomb which obliterated the trucks and cars as they moved along the desert road far below. He could see the horror in her eyes and he tried to turn away only for her to stop him and pull him around to face her with a hand on his cheek.
"Was the intel wrong? Was it just-" she stopped when he nodded and her features darkened, a scowl coming down over her eyes. He knew that any second now she'd let go of his hand and walk away. "Cameron, you are one of the best men I've ever met, honourable and strong and moral. What happened wasn't your fault." He blinked in surprise at her reaction even as his jaw clenched with the knowledge she was wrong about him. "You need to believe me when I say that, Cam." she whispered and he just shook his head and looked away. She let go of his hand at last, but he could still feel the heat of her gaze on him. "Look at me, Cameron." she ordered in a deceptively soft voice and he couldn't deny her. "I know what I believe, I will show you the Cameron Mitchell I know, the man you are is alive inside me, in the love you have given me." she said, lifting a hand to her heart even as she burned him with the fierceness of her gaze, fierce not with anger, but with determination. "I know you, Cam. I know you." She slipped her arms around his waist and kissed him gently. He didn't want to accept her belief in him, but he needed to, or he'd crumble and disappear right there in her arms.
He told her everything as they walked from the Memorial to their hotel. She refused to hear anything about Jonas Hanson, his counterpart in her reality obviously didn't care about hiding his ways behind charm and affability. As she pulled him along through the foyer of the small hotel and into the elevator she was surprised to learn of her father's part in Cameron staying in the Air Force, telling him she hadn't known he'd taken any interest at all in her Academy friend.
They had adjoining rooms with a connecting door between them, and had decided fairly quickly not to sleep separately during their trip. They used the other room for work and there were several secure cases containing briefing folders and materials they'd memorised in preparation for their presentations piled on the bed. The other is where they ate and slept, and as they entered, Sam was already shrugging off her jacket and helping him take his off. She pulled him into an embrace and the feel of her against him just brought it all home to him that she hadn't walked away from him, that she had stayed. She pushed him to sit at the foot of the bed and stood in front of him, snaking her hands around his neck and shoulders and pulling him against her. He slipped his arms around her waist and nestled his cheek against the breast of her dress shirt. She ran her fingers through his hair and leant down to kiss the top of his head, a gesture which was becoming familiar to him now and welcome. He just wanted to feel her fingers smoothing down his hair forever, smoothing away the frayed and tattered edges of his soul at the same time.
On to Chapter 12