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Chapter 18: As Time Goes By…

It was never a dull moment around the mountain. Honestly, it was one of the best parts of the job. Going through the gate was always an experience, even if it was just for what amounted to a nature hike under an alien sky. The very real chance of life threatening danger only added spice to it as far as I was concerned. You never quite knew what incredible things were waiting for you when you took that big step.

But back here at home? Under the mountain?

There was an ever-present hum of activity around the various facilities beneath Cheyenne Mountain. It seemed that the Air Force had begun to realize the enormous potential in the sheer variety and volume of discoveries we were bringing back. We'd accumulated quite a 'hodgepodge,' as Daniel called it, of thinkers, tinkers, soldiers and recently, even the occasional spy.

Although they were few in number, an offworld intelligence unit had been formed of specially selected intelligence agents collected mostly from the CIA, but included at least a pair of agents pulled from some naval intelligence unit. They didn't have much to do at the moment, but were charged with the handling of prisoners (i.e; Hathor), making sense of where power rested in the galaxy these days, and how we could best use that information to our advantage. I'd met a few of them when I'd visited their office and hadn't been particularly impressed with the incredibly messy layout of their data sheets and reports, but I understood that they were scrambling to get as much done as quickly as possible with very little field experience or information to work with. At least the other rival nations of Earth existed on the same planet as us. For now, it was all about playing 'catch up!' until something more real and exploitable, like Hathor, landed in their laps. As outdated as her information was, at least it was something to start with.

Speaking of interesting encounters around base, I had one of those myself not so long ago...

~SG-WOLF~

"Seamus Harper, at your service sir!" the young man saluted jauntily with his hand while holding his wrench.

I was momentarily taken aback by the startlingly young looking mechanic who had been brought to the base a few days ago. My own schedule had kept me from meeting him in person as I normally liked to do but I had eventually made the time during one of my many walks through the base. Today, my walk had brought me down to the machine shops and labs where the head of the department had been quick to introduce me to his newest subordinate with a quick warning to trust that his skills made up plenty for his lack of professional bearing and cocky attitude.

What I was greeted with was a young man appearing in his late teens or early twenties with spiky blonde hair, green eyes, and a boyish face. He wore a plain grey t-shirt with green cargo pants and a very eye catching tool belt around his hips that I guessed had to represent a significant fraction of the young man's weight, given how must stuff it seemed loaded down with. He couldn't have been more than a few inches over five feet and I based that off of the heavy steel toed boots he was wearing which I guessed added an inch or two to his height. He also wore clearly insulated gloves that ended a bit past his wrists.

"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Harper," I greeted casually. I held out my hand to shake his gloved one, which the young man did with a rather flamboyant and exaggerated sweep of his arm. "I understand you've been brought on board with this program for your engineering talents. I hear that you've already made some sort of progress on current projects?"

"You 'betcha!" the man nodded and gestured me towards a corner of the workshop that he had apparently been granted for his work. "Hear ye, hear ye! Step right into my corner and be amazed at the talents of the Great Seamus Harper!"

The young man waved his arms like an excited child and I saw the supervisor facepalm at his antics out of the corner of my eye as we walked up to the workstation. Personally, I was slightly amused but was still willing to give the young gear head an opportunity to impress me before I passed any judgments.

We came over to a table where four familiar pieces of technology were sitting on an otherwise bare metal surface.

"These the new helmet prototypes?" I asked rhetorically. They clearly were. All four were lined up, deployed, and were staring outwards at us as we approached. I noticed that their rectangular eyes were now covered with a black lens and gave off a much more intimidating presence when looked at.

"Colonel, please," Harper said as he quickly jogged up to the table and picked one of the helmets up off the table. He held it aloft in one hand, gesturing flamboyantly as he went on. "These babies have been given the Seamus Harper Treatment and are now more than ready for whatever bug-eyed, squiggly, or forehead tattooed baddies our boys and girls may see out there. Seamus Harper has now brought this spectacular, this magnificent, this fine piece of technological wizardry to you and it is now yours to enjoy!"

"You are aware that referring to oneself in the third person is usually attributed to mental instability, Mr. Harper?" I asked wryly.

"Or a sign that you're a comic book villain," he fired back, unashamed. "Probably one that wears green cloaks and builds robots."

"If you plan to build your own power armor or robot army any time soon, just remember that the Air Force will want to make you a lucrative offer before you attempt to conquer the world, not after," I replied.

Harper gasped dramatically, almost dropping the helmet he was holding. "You actually understood that reference?!" he asked incredulous.

"I did," I nodded, bypassing him and picking up one of the other helmets to examine myself. "What features other than lenses have you added?"

Scrambling around me and seeming to snap out of his surprise, Harper picked up another helmet and held it out in front of him as he explained.

"Okay, so, the fellas before me we able to calibrate the helmet for individuals so the helmets don't try to take off your nose or chin, right?" he began, apparently with a rhetorical question as he just plowed on through. "Right. Well, these babies now come with two whole new deployment forms instead of just the one! Check it out!"

Harper demonstrated this by placing his fingers on the disk on the side of the skull portion of the helmet just where the ears would be located on a human. He pressed hard on the disk and turned it back into another position where it clicked and locked in place. The helmet itself reacted to the change and began to fold up and into itself, but stopped just where the nose would be, leaving the portion where the wearer's mouth and chin would be exposed. He pressed it again and the helmet retracted a little bit more, now just covering the portions that would be the wearer's scalp and the back of their head.

"I came up with this after a slight, er, 'error' in one of the testing sessions," Harper explained. "One of the helmets short circuited and knocked all internal systems offline. Dude was totally stuck in the unit."

At my look, Harper raised his hands and quickly elaborated. "Oh, the dude was totally fine! Helmet just wouldn't work for bit and he was stuck wearing it for half an hour. It wasn't airtight or anything, so it was fine! Guy was basically just stuck wearing an expensive tin can on his head."

He waved his hands dismissively. "Anyway, I had this idea! He had to speak up and kept repeating himself since he was hard to hear from inside the helmet. So, I thought a function that partially uncovered the head and face would be great in the field! And taking it a step further, I added one where the wearer can still protect the back and top of their head and use their own eyes in case the HUD fails or the user needs to use their own eyes! Now, you can eat, talk, smell the roses, even give a steamy kiss to any alien hotties you meet offworld!"

Giving the engineer another look, I admitted to myself that the idea was a good one. Not the part about making out with aliens, but having different settings on the helmet. While I imagine it wouldn't be the most comfortable, being able to use the scope of a weapon without having to look through the eyepiece of the helmet would probably be very useful until someone worked out a better weapons interface.

Speaking of...

"Any progress with the HUD systems?" I asked him. "I understand everyone down here and their cousin has been taking a crack at fine-tuning that feature."

"Their cousins, their mothers, their creepy friend from elementary school who used to eat paste," Harper nodded, taking my analogy further. "We've gotten some cool stuff put in there and finally have a working software program that should be user friendly enough that we'll get fewer complaints."

"Got one handy that I can try out?" I asked next.

"Well..." he stretched the word. "Not a working model, per se. We've been using a test model we cobbled together so that we wouldn't have to keep refitting helmets for testers."

Harper crouched beside the table and pulled out one of the storage drawers at its bottom. While I couldn't see exactly what he was rifling through, I heard several metallic thudding noises as items bumped into his hands and one another.

"Ah ha!"

Harper stood suddenly, holding the result of his search up victoriously. It was actually a standard combat helmet with one additional feature; a pair of tinted goggles seem to be affixed to the front of the helmet. I noticed that the glass was the same tint as the eyepieces on the finished helmets. I'd heard that the eyepieces were made with the same polarizing lenses that NASA had been experimenting with and would adjust themselves to shield the eyes from most levels of UV lighting.

The engineers here had also been experimenting with the idea of 'smart glass' technology for the helmets. Basically, integrating cameras and circuitry into transparent glass and creating a wearable, if basic, computer. The technology was new, but was one of those old ideas we finally had the right tech to try and build it with. The original prototypes required a small backpack to run and power but with the introduction of the tech we'd been acquiring and experimenting with here at the SGC, we could jump the designs ahead by several generations at least.

What followed was a quick demo of how the heads up display operated. It definitely had the virtue of being simple to operate and required minimal input from the operator. It was only a prototype, but it still had some useful features built into it. The HUD came with a hookup jack for the wearer's radio to be plugged into and could be activated by pressing the side of the helmet and speaking into the built in microphone. It also came with a compass (which I had doubts about working on any number of planets or environments), a camera function that didn't yet have a video option but could be used to snap pictures and store them for later download, and a nicely worded promise for night vision at some point in the future. Or at least, some sort of amalgamation that Harper explained would work 'like' night vision.

When I asked what he meant, Harper went on to explain that there was another function that one of the techs had been working on that he thought I might like. He swapped out the testing helmet I was wearing and handed me a different one with only one function on it. Activating it, I found it was some kind of highlighting system that emphasized the environment and created an outline of nearby objects. It worked best as a low light visual enhancer and was apparently meant as a replacement to night vision or NVGs. When I asked, Harper informed me one of the techs working on the HUD had thought that the design might outright replace current night vision technology and had been downright gleeful for the opportunity to prove it.

Personally, I was a fan of sticking with what I knew worked. I loved innovation and applying old ideas in new ways, but I was wary of new technology being used to 'replace' stuff that worked fine and didn't overcome some existing flaw. From what I could tell, this system worked fine in lower light environments, but was borderline useless in well lit environments. The designer hadn't worked out how to make the system function well in daylight situations and even if it was an exclusively nighttime feature, I wasn't sure it beat the visual acuity current night vision tech grants.

Still, it might become something special with a little bit of work. And I couldn't deny it had standard NVGs beat in terms of cutting down on bulk and weight.

"I like it," I informed him at last.

"Well, hey, what's not to like?" Harper said, sounding rather arrogant. But I think he might've been trying to imitate Rodney Dangerfield or something with his change in speaking tone and how he pretended to adjust an imaginary tie on his shirt as he said it. But I could deal with quirky if it produced results.

"The experimental system looks nice, but I think I speak from a place of experience when I say we'll probably be going with the first prototype you showed me," I informed him. "Although, I'm interested to see if the second system can be improved upon in the future."

"Yeah?" Harper asked, perking up a bit the idea. "I like that one too. Too bad the system's a real power hog, not to mention still buggy as hell. The first one is way more energy efficient and streamlined since it doesn't require too much computational power to operate. Power's not too much of a concern with those little liquid naquadah batteries we use to power them, but we still haven't figured out how to keep them from overheating. Right now, we can barely prevent that from happening in the prototype. Last thing we want is for these things to fail ten minutes into using them."

"Amen to that," I agreed wryly, imagining getting my face burned or electrocuted by one of these things malfunctioning. Suddenly, they seemed a little less cool. "I'm impressed with how much progress has been made with these things. You've practically shoved another computer into this thing with how much it can do."

"We've been learning a lot with all the computer tech we've yoinked from the gliders and a few other odds and ends the teams have picked up offworld," Harper went on. "Honestly, we're living in a condensed technological renaissance down here. It's gonna take us awhile to decipher and get the most out of the goodies we've picked up."

"Right," I agreed thoughtfully. "I remember Carter saying something like that awhile back. Something about how a lot of technology we could build if only we just had all the missing components. I think she was talking about batteries in that instance."

"Oh, don't get me started on batteries!" Harper lamented. "We've been crawling forward in trying to build better batteries for decades now! All we've managed is to make them cheaper, not better. After we cracked open one of those staff weapons and got a look at that green glowing miracle inside, I was ready to fall to my knees and declare my worship, not for the goa'uld mind you, but for their tech."

Harper finished his little rant by making what looked like an amalgamation of at least three different religious gestures. At least, that's how I thought to best describe it. I might've called it a seizure instead if I wasn't fairly sure the man was still joking around.

"Can you have more units ready for field testing?" I asked him, ignoring his quirky behavior once again as I handed the second testing helmet back to him.

"Shouldn't take too long once I get a team I can fit them to," Harper nodded, now juggling the half helmet back and forth between his hands.

"I've got three teams lined up and waiting to be volun-told to test these things out," I informed him. "My own team is first in line. So make sure to give it your best, Mr. Harper."

I held out my hand to shake one last time and the young engineer responded with a flamboyant slap of his own palm against mine as he grasped my hand and shook it.

"You got it, boss man!"

~SG-WOLF~

I suppose it was only a matter of time.

SG-6 'Bobcat,' accompanied by SG-7 'Raven,' were sent to a world where we had made contact with a goa'uld mining and refinery outpost. The jaffa garrison looked to be practically nonexistent and the locals seemed friendly enough when they arrived the day before. SG-Bobcat had managed to make an agreement with the locals where they could be shown the inside of the refinery in exchange for basic supplies and a few other odd items our teams carried, like their binoculars and better knives. Eager to see the goa'uld process for refining naquadah, the team negotiated what they believed to be a fair price and reported back to the SGC. Hammond gave the mission the green light but insisted that Raven accompany them for backup.

A couple of hours after their departure, we found out that it'd all gone to shit.

Raven had held back to guard their exit and that, along with the extra firepower had probably been the only reason we had any idea what had happened. Bobcat had been ambushed immediately after entering the refinery complex and had lost two of their members. The other two managed to scramble out of there in a hurry and make a run for it back to the stargate.

Raven had come under heavy fire as the stargate came under assault by a large number of jaffa. Apparently, the garrison's numbers were much larger than we had been led to believe. The last two members of Bobcat had managed to hook up with Raven and they'd managed to fight their way back to the stargate, loosing a member of Raven along the way. With a large number of jaffa closing in, the survivors had no choice but to leave the body behind along with the ones from Bobcat.

They managed to make it back to the stargate, fighting their way through the rear guard of jaffa that had been left there. Bobcat lost a third member during that brief firefight. They then quickly dialed Earth and retreated through the gate. The jaffa were close enough to fire their staff weapons at the open gate and reach Earth, scoring the concrete wall in the Gate Room with burns from the heat of the plasma. Once the last members of Raven came through, one being dragged by his teammate due to a staff injury to his leg, we closed the iris. The metal shield let out loud thuds before the stargate shut down, meaning either staff blasts or maybe even a particularly brave jaffa had tried to charge through in pursuit.

There was no hope of going back for the bodies. The survivors reported that jaffa were swarming that planet in numbers of at least battalion strength and they'd have to be stupid as hell to not have a heavy guard on the gate now. And even if we'd had the sarcophagus we'd stolen from Hathor, we couldn't hope to save them if we didn't have their bodies. As it was, the sarcophagus was still at Area 51 being studied and I didn't even know if it was in working condition even if we had the bodies.

Everyone was hit hard by the losses. Before now we'd lost contact with teams or individual members for any number of reasons, but the worst that'd happen was an injury. Off world teams always returned intact, if a little more worn around the edges. Even the losses on our last trip to Abydos didn't hit so hard since most of these teams hadn't even been assembled yet. It was all ancient history to them. Weird exposures, broken bones, and the occasional staff weapon burn were the worst we'd faced thus far. I suppose even I was guilty in thinking we were just too good to get caught, too well trained, or maybe just covered by plot armor.

As I stood in the Gate Room in my full dress uniform, watching the color guard fold a flag for each casualty as the music stand played the time honored song of taps, I was reminded that this world had very real consequences for failure.

This ceremony was private and for base personnel only. We'd packed the Gate Room with as many as we could and both the Control Room and the main briefing room above it were crowded as well. It was standing room only and only those without duties elsewhere could attend. Front and center were the survivors. The leader of Raven had to be pushed there in a wheelchair in order to attend, but he had been adamant that he wasn't going to miss this. Beside him, stood the last living member of SG-Bobcat. I didn't know much about him, but I could tell by the vacant look in his eyes that he wasn't wholly here with us. Only time wold tell if he'd remain with the program or would be rotated out for either discharge or some other assignment.

Lasting less than an hour, with a few brief words spoken by both Hammond and the base chaplain, the ceremony concluded. The gathering broke apart and it was back to business as usual. By Hammond's request, I'd followed him back to his office where we both unbuttoned our uniform blazers and sat heavily in the padded chairs.

We spoke about little of consequence at first. New team assignments, the status of the wounded, that kind of thing. Eventually, after a long period of silence between us, I gave voice to the thoughts that had been bothering me.

"I guess I just fell off a mountain."

"What was that?" Hammond asked.

"I mean that I just had a harsh wake up call," I explained. "I suppose, intellectually, I knew this sort of thing had to happen sooner or later. We send people into dangerous situations all the time around here. They're all skilled professionals and they know the risks and the importance of our work here. That doesn't make it any easier though."

"No, it doesn't," Hammond agreed, sighing heavily. "And it won't be the last time either."

"No it wont," I agreed sullenly. A knot had formed in my gut since before the memorial service and hadn't gone away after. Feeling suddenly drained with all that had been going on lately, I decided to try and reach out for any sort of advice. "General, you've been at this longer than I have. Any words of wisdom to offer?"

"Have you not lost people under your command before, colonel?" he asked instead.

I shook me head. "No, I have...but it still feels fresh every time. I know it doesn't ever get any easier but I'd have thought I'd have learned to handle it better. And yet here I am, wondering what else I could've done or said to have prevented this or minimized the losses."

And didn't that just sum up what I'd been doing around here since day one? I like to think I'd done well so far and gave us an extra edge or two in our early days, but was it enough? Was I missing things? I'm not perfect and I'd be the first person to say so, but now the difference is that if I'm not perfect, other people, whole worlds could pay the price for my failures.

I'd had friends die before. Some of them, I even felt some responsibility for even if I knew it was likely misplaced. That was just part of life. But this was sitting with me worse than many of those deaths had and I couldn't shake the sense that I should have done more, done something, somehow. What that something was I didn't know, but I couldn't shake the feeling.

We both sat in silence for a few moments as I waited for Hammond to say something.

"I imagine for many officers, it'll always hurt," he said finally. "It's one of the things that makes an old officer look forward to retirement. Then again, we both decided to stick with this instead of retirement, didn't we?"

"That's right," I said in realization. "You were on your way out when the stargate reopened and it all hit the fan. I know why I got pulled back in, but what kept you around?"

"Same thing that kept me around for this long in the first place, I imagine," he said, leaning back in his chair. "This is what I've spent my life doing. I don't think I ever saw myself being happy anywhere else. When those airmen got attacked by those jaffa, I wanted to see those responsible held accountable. When we got a much bigger idea of what was out there and the threat against us, I was asked to stay on and I couldn't say no."

"Was it your sense of duty or adventure that kept you here?" I asked, interested in the older man's story.

"A bit of both," he chuckled. "And that I was asked personally by the Secretary of the Air Force to stick around. Apparently, I still have enough friends or at least friendly acquaintances in DC who thought I was up for the job."

"They weren't wrong," I told him. "I'm not sure how well we'd have managed if someone less flexible or too scared to think outside the norms of military command had been put in charge. This program prospers in no small part because of you, sir."

"That's kind of you to say, colonel," Hammond said with a small smile before his expression sobered again. "But to answer your question, I don't think anything other than time and experience helps. Time to come to grips with reality and enough experience with it that you just learn to move forward."

"But it's good to care," he continued. "I don't want to think of the consequences of what would happen if someone who didn't care was the one giving orders around here. The day you stop caring is the day you should be concerned, colonel. I know that the day I stop feeling anything for my dead, I'll retire for good. Whether I have a request by the Pentagon or even the White House to stay, I know I'm gone."

"For you colonel, I'd say your best bet going forward is to keep doing what you've been doing."

"Just power my way forward then?" I asked, a bit disappointed by the generic sounding advice.

"No, you can keep doing what you've been doing," he corrected me, pointing a finger at me as he emphasized his wording. I noticed him seeming to become more intent in his posture as he leaned forward again in his chair. "For example; those walks you make through the mountain, visiting personnel everywhere, and making it clear that you're here for them, that you listen to them. It counts for a lot. You make yourself available to the personnel here in a way that I've only seen a handful of times before in my career and never quite to the degree in which you manage to do it. I can tell what an impact it has."

"I take my job as your second in command very seriously, sir," I said modestly.

"And it makes for one incredible difference, colonel," he told me. "While time is the best cure for all wounds, especially ones like this, I believe you couldn't do better than to get yourself back out there and interact with our people again. You have a natural and open personality that lets people believe they can depend on you and you've proven that through action as well. Generals, politicians, and leaders work their whole careers to imitate what seems to come to you naturally and many never succeed. You live in those interactions and seem to come alive when you play to a crowd."

I was flattered by what the general was telling me, but was trying to understand all of what he was saying. Was I really standing out in that way? I didn't think I was making such an impact. When I first took my strolls through the base, it was partly because I was so in love with where I was and what I was doing and partly because I felt I had a duty to do so.

As time went on, I guess it had just become habit to check in on everyone and make sure things were running smoothly. While I know I had my own part to play in this universe, I felt that the best way to ensure my own success was to make sure everyone else was succeeding too. The fact that I enjoyed my interactions with the base's personnel didn't really seem like more than a bonus to me.

"What I'm trying to say is that you should go out there and start fresh," Hammond explained. "Talk with some of the personnel. Remind them that we've all still got a job to do and about how there's always another tomorrow and another mission to look forward to. I believe that seeing you carrying on will help get both them and you through this."

I honestly didn't know what to say in response to that. I felt myself get slightly choked up that this man, this incredibly experienced military officer, had expressed such faith in me. And to be honest, I was starting to like the sound of the idea of taking a walk through the mountain and checking in on everyone. I was still responsible for them, the SG teams especially, and felt like it was about time I got it together.

Standing and refastening my uniform blazer, I gave a salute to the general. I hoped that it also conveyed my gratitude to the man through body language and tone.

"Thank you, sir. I believe it's time I got back to work."

"Any time, colonel," he said, standing and returning the salute.

~SG-WOLF~

Our experiences in heading back to Chulak a few weeks later had been pretty productive and I had taken the chance to capitalize on it.

Meeting Brey'tac had been a great beginning to one of the ideas I had been holding onto for awhile now. As soon as we returned and I finished my official report on the mission, I also submitted another proposal into what was now officially being called MacDuff's Playbook, since that is how Hammond had decided to describe it to his own superiors when he passed it along. Apparently, the SecDef or someone else high ranking and in on the program thought it was pretty funny and had actually labeled it as 'the Playbook' in official documentation. Some additional documents had made it into there since my initial submissions, but the majority of them were still mine.

While I considered it good that my proposals were being taken seriously, I was admittedly a bit nervous that my paperwork was being passed around and discussed at such a high level. It really struck home to me that I was in a whole different league than even regular high ranking military officers if my word was being taken seriously by the nation's top officials.

It also made me more concerned with proper grammar and spelling whenever I printed something to be shown to others on that level. Misuse 'their' or 'you're' just once or in the wrong situation and I'd likely never hear the end of it.

Anyway, this most recent submission had suggested the creation of an offworld base. Not like the Alpha Site, but something else entirely. I'd already made a proposal for that and it'd been approved with incredible speed, even given the fact that it was designed as a last ditch measure to save the president and a select cadre of Earth's best and brightest. Self interest was a powerful motivator, I suppose. No, this one would be dedicated primarily to aliens, or non-Earth natives at least. It also tied in to the idea of fostering a jaffa rebellion that we'd briefly discussed as part of getting Hammond to approve of Teal'c going back to Chulak to rescue his wife and son.

I had even brought Daniel in on this with me. My nerdy accomplice was pretty excited to be a part of this once I pitched it to him in person. I could tell I'd definitely garnered his interest when I visited him in his lab the next day and saw him compiling notes and marking down ideas of his own. I was a little embarrassed that my own research hadn't progressed much beyond the 'Find a Cool Name For It' stage and how to keep the location secret and secure. Daniel had blown me away with several sources consisting of deep studies into multi-cultural settlements and different cultures having to exist in close proximity to one another. It included notes on stuff I hadn't even thought about, like dietary requirements and even sanitation as viewed from the eyes of different stages of civilization.

I was thoroughly impressed with how much detail had gone into Daniel's notes and chided myself for not realizing sooner that in regards to making ideas like this come to fruition, guys like Daniel were the ones who were going to make it happen. I insisted that he come with me to propose the idea to the general at some point whenever he and I had the time. My shy friend at first attempted to beg off of doing so but I got him to agree with enough badgering mixed with flattery.

It was a couple of days later that I went to pry Daniel out of his office and informed him that the general and I had some spare time and I wanted to bring up the semi-official proposal to him along with something else I wanted to bring Teal'c in on as well once I had first sounded the idea out to General Hammond.

"Another idea you want to pitch, colonel?" Hammond asked. His brusque tone might have put some people off, but I had known him long enough and talked with him enough to recognize the joking look in his eye that told me he wasn't against another visit from me.

It really helped that I knew that Hammond genuinely appreciated my ideas. Even the ones he didn't put much faith in or see any feasibility with getting approved at this time, he was still willing to hear me out because he was convinced that I at least believed it was worth consideration. And since a number of my proposals also dealt with the safety and security of the base and our offworld teams, I believed he also felt a sense of duty to at least hear the basics.

He gestured to the two seats in front of his desk and we took that as our cue to be seated. We chatted for a few minutes about unimportant things and eventually the topic reached our latest mission and our return to Chulak.

"I actually would have liked to bring Teal'c's family back with us, sir," I began. "But I just didn't consider it the best choice for the situation, so I didn't push for it."

"Did Teal'c ask for them to come with you, or did he recommend that they stay on Chulak?" Hammond asked.

"We talked about it before and during the mission," I admitted. "And he and I were in agreement that unless it didn't seem at all viable, they should stay there."

"Really?" Hammond asked, showing some surprise. "I'm sure we could've made accommodations for them here under the mountain. I remember telling Teal'c as much before you all departed."

"Teal'c would have likely preferred that, sir," I explained. "But I don't think he'd have wanted them to live on Earth if they were going to be kept underground the whole time. They've not even let Teal'c leave the premises of the mountain unless it's through the stargate. His wife and kid would be stuck underground for the foreseeable future and left waiting here with little or nothing to do while he went on missions. As much as he'll miss them, we agreed that they'd be better off going into hiding with his wife's family instead."

"Not to mention Brey'tac," Daniel added. "He'd also promised to look out for them when he could and seemed confident that he'd be able to locate her and protect them if need be."

"That's all well and good, gentlemen," Hammond replied. "But I think it's about time we circled around to the point of this meeting. Colonel, you said you had some sort of proposal based off of what to do about these three but I'm not sure how much help we can provide if we're not bringing them back here to the SGC. It sounds like they're doing well enough on their own, based off of what you are saying."

"But how good is 'well enough?'" Daniel asked in response. Hammond looked quizzically at him, so I took up the explanation from there.

"Sir," I began. "Finding Brey'tac may be a huge boon for us down the line. Even more than it might be in the short term. It proved that there are jaffa willing to not only think outside the indoctrination the goa'uld have them go through, but also be willing to take action against them. Teal'c described how he was trained by Brey'tac to see through the illusion of godhood the goa'uld always put up around him and his people by using reasoning and small examples to prove they were not divine beings."

"Where there's one, there are likely more," Hammond agreed, repeating a point we'd made before going on the mission.

"There's also the matter of the camp we saw," I continued. "There must have been about a hundred or so people living there and it sounded like more of these camps existed on Chulak alone. Outcasts and misfits who serve no apparent purpose and live on the edge of local civilization out there. How does that sound to you, sir?"

"Like a breeding ground for domestic unrest and potential sympathizers," Hammond replied, looking impressed and intrigued by the possibilities.

It wasn't often depicted in the show, but the Jaffa Rebellion was a tremendously powerful tool in Earth's fight against the System Lords. Having relied on their slave armies for so long, just the notion that they couldn't trust their own forces to not betray them was a powerful form of psychological warfare to employ against the goa'uld. Earth getting in on the ground floor of the movement and helping build it up from scratch also helped make sure that the movement stayed more or less in control. While that might sound sinister, anyone well read on the French Revolution could tell you about the dangers of a revolution that gets out of hand.

But now, I just had to stick the landing with the second part.

"But a lot of those people, like Teal'c's family, are what we might consider noncombatants," I continued. "Our mission today just highighted that while there may be those willing to fight against the goa'uld, their families aren't immune to retaliation."

"The fear of what the goa'uld will do to their own servants, regardless of loyalty, runs strong," Daniel added somberly. "We saw it on Abydos, where Ra attacked the people there just for meeting with us. We saw it today where a group of jaffa had burned down Teal'c's house and drove his wife and son into hiding."

"So I thought," I said, picking up the narrative. "Having a place where the families could go might be a powerful incentive for allowing a dissident jaffa to join up with such a cause."

Hammond looked thoughtful at the idea and I gave him a moment to consider it before I began speaking again.

"But this proposal it twofold," I added. "Thinking more long term here, it might benefit us greatly to have an off world site dedicated to the housing of refugees temporarily or even a settlement on a more permanent basis."

"We've encountered populations out there living in slavery, in miserable conditions or on worlds where they are forced to endure under terrible conditions on the whims of their goa'uld masters or because they've been abandoned," Daniel went on. "Having a world to act as a refuge would be a tremendous boon to us in rescuing some of these individuals and getting them away from the goa'uld entirely."

"You make an interesting case, gentlemen," Hammond told us thoughtfully. "But I see one problem with this idea; where would we be able to establish such a refuge?"

Daniel and I both let out a wince at that. Admittedly, since all we had to go on for gate addresses right now was the cartouche on Abydos, all of our known stargate addresses were or currently are goa'uld controlled worlds. We hadn't gotten any addresses yet that weren't originally discovered by the goa'uld. Even if they hadn't visited in at least a century, there was no promise they wouldn't come back.

"Well, we haven't figured that out, sir," I allowed.

'Not yet,' I thought to myself.

"But there's no guarantee that it'll always be the case," Daniel added optimistically. "We're making new discoveries every week. It's not outside the realm of possibility that we could offer refuge for displaced groups of people and that we could find such a safe location in which to house them. Bringing them to Earth is something I realize would be impractical and a poorly received by many. But at the very least, we should consider the incredible humanitarian concerns involved if we were to just leave these people to their own devices. Apart from being a refuge for jaffa civilians, we could offer salvation to whole groups of slaves left to toil endlessly in mines on hostile worlds."

I just looked between Daniel and Hammond as I let the former continue to speak without interruption. One of the reasons I was happy to bring Daniel to this meeting was his clear passion for the topic at hand. Daniel was a natural born humanitarian who liked to wear his heart on his sleeve. When the topic was pertaining to the cause of civilization or in helping those in need, he spoke with a passion that demanded to be listened to. Michael Shanks had done a great job of demonstrating that trait on the show, but it was something else to see this in person and from the real Daniel Jackson.

Hammond hummed thoughtfully and rested his chin on clasped hands as he took all of this in. Finally, he spoke.

"I don't think I need to tell you two that this sort of endeavor would require an incredible amount of resources and an unprecedented level of commitment from both this program and the United States," Hammond informed me. "I'm not sure we could be up to such an undertaking at this time. In terms of providing security alone and in terms of the resources and personnel you'd be suggesting, we would likely be biting off more than we could chew."

I actually was well aware of that even given the fact that in the long-term, we could make such a settlement self-sustaining in terms of food and other necessities. My hope was that we could eventually make it part of an international effort and have some of the other nations of Earth be brought on to help take up some of the cost of big endeavors like this. Of course, I wasn't going to bring that idea up now.

Fun fact; if you ever want to get fired from your highly classified government/military job, all you have to do is mention sharing your clandestine assets and information with other nations. Someone will be happy to show you the door.

While I knew that it was pretty much an inevitability that we'd have to make this program a global effort in the future, pushing for it too soon wouldn't earn me any friends in high places. It'd probably take a bit longer and a few more things would have to happen before such an idea could be talked about openly without the worry of ridicule. In this game, timing counted for a lot.

For now, I was happy to get this proposal submitted and put into consideration. I was sure events would validate me in the long term and get this proposal considered again and eventually passed.

"Of course, sir," I said instead. "But long term, I'm hoping we can consider the potential benefits of being prepared with such a site. Having another allied world out there may have more than one benefit in the future, even if we have to create it ourselves."

"Agreed, colonel," Hammond said. "Have it written up and on my desk when you get the chance. I'll ensure it's passed along upstairs. For what it's worth, despite my skepticism, I will also pass along my support for the idea."

"Will do, sir," I said, hoping that Daniel would take the hint from my behavior and not try to 'press the attack' at this point. I liked the guy, but he really didn't know how to let some stuff go, even if temporarily. "And thank you."

Thankfully, Daniel chose not to continue the argument today. He and I stood and I offered a casual salute, not overly concerned with formality in this meeting.

"Dismissed," Hammond said, standing and returning my casual salute with one of his own. Daniel just raised his hand and waved it awkwardly for a moment before putting it back down.

~SG-WOLF~

"Don't be a baby Kawalsky."

"Colonel, I am certain there are strict regulations about inflicting this kind of harm upon your subordinates."

I had finally put aside some time for some special training with my whole team. Today, SG-Dragon would be joining us in the gym for some hand to hand training and defensive tactics as led by Teal'c.

Despite what TV and movies would have you believe, not every member of the armed forces received extensive lessons in badass punching and kicking. Much more time was spent teaching recruits to fight with the weapons in their hands or with the various war machines at their disposal. Folks like myself and even Carter were more of an exception when you took into account just how big the military was. As a pararescue, I was trained in a variety of martial forms that included the various tools at my disposal and my bare hands as well. I'd discovered that I had a lot of skill packed into my grey matter and I was confident in my ability to match even a jaffa in combat. My real concern was the people under my command who didn't enjoy the same assurance.

Today, I had asked Teal'c to take charge and to teach us a couple of things. During my chats with Teal'c, we had also discussed how jaffa were trained. Teal'c told me all about the warrior culture of the jaffa and how from a young age, they were trained with a wooden staff, called a bashaak. Different goa'uld had different traditions for their jaffa based mostly off of whatever culture they had adopted or stolen them from, but a lot of stuff was fairly consistent.

"I shall endeavor not to cause permanent injury, Major Kawalsky," Teal'c informed the smaller man. He was probably trying to sound nonthreatening, but his small smile as he said that didn't help. Neither did the fact that the black tank top he was wearing left his cantaloupe-sized biceps on full display. Teal'c was a natural at controlling his emotions and hiding his thoughts but I think even SG-Dragon, who hadn't spent nearly as much time around him as we had, could tell he was somewhat amused by Kawalsky's nervousness.

"Hey I'm not so delicate big guy," Kawalsky said, taking a guarding stance against Teal'c. "But, uh...let's maybe start slow, yeah?"

Teal'c nodded in affirmation and dropped into a ready stance.

Daniel leaned over to quietly speak to me. "Kawalsky did hear what happened when those marines on SG-Hawk all sparred with Teal'c, right?" he asked.

I hummed aloud thoughtfully as I scratched my chin, not answering him verbally.

Before Daniel could ask again, Kawalsky decided to make a step forward and made a jab at Teal'c, who's guard absorbed the blow with no issue. Before Kawalsky could withdraw or try a followup, Teal'c grabbed the major's arm with lightning quickness and pulled him further forward. Teal'c stepped just out of the major's trajectory but swept one leg beneath the man. This had the result of making Kawalsky completely lose his balance and sending him tripping forward and slamming into the ground.

To his credit, it looked like Kawalsky quickly attempted to recover but Teal'c wasn't going to let him. He dropped to the mats and on top of Kawalsky, quickly wrapping a meaty arm around his neck and putting the man into a choke hold that had him stuck. If Teal'c so desired, I knew he could have snapped Kawalsky's neck like a twig with his tremendous strength, but that wasn't his goal here.

After a few seconds of struggling Kawalsky tapped out and Teal'c immediately released him from the hold, dropping the major onto the mats and giving Kawalsky an opportunity to recover, which the major seemed to appreciate as he gulped for air and massaged his collarbone and neck.

"No Daniel," I finally responded. "I don't think he heard about that."

"Ouch," Carter summed up for everyone nearby. I caught Casey and Warren giving a sympathetic wince for their team leader as he continued to groan from his position on the mats.

"Are you injured, Major Kawalsky?" Teal'c asked, remaining crouched beside him on the mat.

"I'm good, big guy. I'm good," Kawalsky said rolling onto his back and panting a bit. "I certainly didn't expect you to try to knock me off balance like that. In my experience, big guys like you usually try to overpower their opponents first."

Teal'c rose from the mats and offered a hand to his fallen opponent, which the major accepted. Kawalsky was lifted from the mat in one swift movement as Teal'c lifted him with ridiculous ease with just one arm.

"Jaffa are most often trained in martial forms often while wearing their armor," Teal'c explained. "Even a small jaffa will weigh a considerable amount in full armor. Basic martial training for many jaffa consists of techniques to use an opponent's weight against them and offset their stance, leaving them open to attack."

"Yeah, I'm not lookin' to get into grappling range of any jaffa any time soon," Ballard, from SG-Dragon said. From what I understand, he was the team sharpshooter and typically preferred a Remington 700 whenever venturing offworld.

"Doesn't mean they won't try to get in grappling range with you," I remarked. "We wander into way too many temples and weird buildings not to consider the possibility that some jaffa will wait for one of us to turn a corner and take us by surprise."

"Indeed," Teal'c nodded to me and turned back to Ballard. "Many jaffa will attempt to get closer to you during combat in order to take advantage of their physical strength, as jaffa are accustomed to being able to physically overpower their human servants."

That might seem a bit ridiculous to most soldiers from Earth, but it did make a certain kind of sense. As powerful as those staff weapons were, they also had a terribly slow rate of fire when compared to even the most basic firearms we carried with us offworld. Before the evolution of more advanced weaponry on Earth, melee combat was still fairly common. Even with the invention of arquebusiers and eventually muskets, soldiers still carried bayonets, knives, or some other weapon because it was entirely too common to engage the enemy at melee range.

Jaffa had the advantages of their superior strength and advanced training with their staff weapons whenever it came down to it. I had asked Teal'c all about how jaffa were normally trained and included it in my initial reports. Teal'c, being First Prime was obviously a cut above the average jaffa. He had been fortunate to be trained under a renowned master from a young age and had flourished under his teachings. Other jaffa had to learn from their fathers or some other adult figure in their life and there was no assurance in the quality of that training. So when we practiced against Teal'c, we got a good idea of what the best of the jaffa we might be facing off against might be like.

Thankfully, very few jaffa seemed as well trained as Teal'c.

"We'll start going in turns while Teal'c walks us through the more effective techniques we'll be learning," I said to the whole group as I stepped up next to Teal'c in front of both teams. "We'll be emphasizing solo tactics first and later on, we'll practice working in pairs. Dragon, you'll be with Teal'c first..."

"Joy," Kawalsky grumbled, rolling his shoulders back and wincing.

"Carter and Daniel, you'll be warming up with me," I finished.

The two of them nodded and we all separated to different sets of mats. While I knew Carter was a pretty capable hand to hand fighter and I was certainly no amateur myself, it was more than obvious that Daniel... wasn't exactly Bruce Lee. Not his fault or anything, but I was determined to drill a certain level of skill into him. I knew he had it in him but the sooner we brought that potential out, the better. That, and it was never a bad idea to work on building team coordination through these kinds of activities.

We spent a solid hour practicing before I called a break and switched us all off. I could see everyone taking these lessons to heart and I was glad for it. We had the whole day at this and I'd be working everyone to the bone if that's what it took for these lessons to stick.

No telling when exactly we'd all have to depend on these techniques in the near future.

~SG-WOLF~

Consciousness returned to me slowly. I felt a moment of confusion as I looked up and saw my reflection staring back at me.

This confusion left me and was replaced with a moment of panic when I realized that I was lying on my back and that was definitely not a reflection staring back at me. Then I realized there were some serious looking wounds on 'my' face that shouldn't be there. Then I realized that I couldn't move at all.

I began to recall what had occurred earlier as we had arrived on this world.

'Harlen's planet,' I remembered. 'Which makes this guy my...oh. Right.'

That wasn't my reflection looking back at me. He's my synthetic clone.

Now that I understood what he was, I looked back at my android counterpart with fascination. He was wearing the black work clothes with silvery highlights that Harlen must have given him to wear. He had some pretty serious looking damage to the left side of his face that looked like several jagged scratches as well as... burn damage? Rather than looking horrific like it would if he was organic, it only revealed the grey and artificial looking 'flesh' that was just below the normal looking skin.

I had planned for this happening and had wanted it to happen more or less how the original events took place, but with one major difference.

I had always thought it was a sorely missed opportunity when it came to the synthetic duplicates of SG-1. All of that training and potential left to rot in the ass end of nowhere in a facility that was on the verge of falling apart. They had superior physical abilities to baseline humans and all of their personalities were nearly if not exactly identical to their flesh and blood originals.

What sort of assets could they become? Without O'Neill's immediate dismissal of machine life, what sort of options could we now explore? Could they be the first in a long line of synthetic lifeforms that might grow and develop their own society? Could we begin reaching into whole new areas of science and philosophy as we explored the human consciousness through new, cybernetic eyes?

Wasn't it Q from Star Trek who summed it up best? 'That is the exploration that awaits you. Not mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence.'

But perhaps more pertinent to our future needs; could we use them against threats like the Replicators? The Wraith? Hell, I'd like to see how they fared against regular jaffa.

My train of thought was derailed when I heard the voice of Harlen speaking.

"You belong here," he insisted. "You are welcome here!"

I felt myself able to rise from the low table I way laying on and immediately did so. I swung my legs over the side, but remained seated as I looked at my doppleganger. Behind him stood Daniel, just without his glasses and dressed like my synthetic counterpart.

"Daniel?" I asked. Partly to play the role of being confused and partly because I wasn't sure what else I could call him and not sound like an ass.

Nevertheless, the synthetic Daniel Jackson winced at my query. "Uhh, sort of," he said before moving over to the table with his own counterpart on it and assisting him.

I observed the duplicate Carter helping her original sit up as they stared at each other in mutual fascination. Original Carter seemed at a complete loss for words as she stared at her copy and Synthetic Carter looked more as if she just wasn't sure what to say. One might have even called their staring narcissistic as they examined the copies of themselves. Either that, or...

I shook my head to get the suddenly dirty thoughts to go away.

"Harlen, what the hell has been going on here?" I demanded, turning to look at him. My anger wasn't entirely false, since I did take offense at the underhanded way he went about his goals in creating our duplicates. I understood that he was desperate, but just because I understood it didn't mean that I liked it.

"I apologize for this entire debacle," Harlen said. "I restrained you for so long and failed to properly communicate my intentions to you or your synthetic duplicates. This entire misunderstanding could have been avoided had I been more open with you all."

The old man, or rather android, in front of us made a contrite gesture of some kind as he bowed his head and clasped his hands in front of him.

"It doesn't seem possible," Organic Carter commented, drawing my attention back to her as Synthetic Daniel helped Organic Teal'c sit up as his own duplicate wasn't present.

"It's true," her counterpart said, shrugging helplessly. "At first, we didn't even realize we were any different."

Seemingly now fixated on the scientific aspects of what was going on, the duo launched into a discussion on the sheer impossibility of what they were seeing and rationalizing it away as the two realized that it was clearly possible, somehow.

The two Daniels began a discussion of their own and Teal'c inquired to Harlen if there was a copy made of him. My duplicate then got my attention when I looked at him by jerking his head towards the door. I took that as a sign to follow him, as he chose to leave the room a moment later. Seeing that the others were all invested in their own conversations, I followed my own duplicate out of the room less than a minute later.

Walking into the next room, I saw him leaning over a large glass tank of some kind in the corner of the room. Lab equipment designed for some equally mysterious purposes littered the surfaces of tables around us, but I decided to ignore all of that for now. I had a much bigger concern right in front of me.

I had thought long and hard about what I'd do in this exact situation, should it ever come up. I had come to the conclusion that I'd have to prepare myself for a whole lifestyle change again if and when the time came. Not going back to Earth for a long time, if ever, would suck. However, this would be a sacrifice I considered worthwhile for the incredible opportunity I'd have planted at my feet. I'd had to consider it not just in terms of what a copy of me would be sentenced to, but what I would be sentenced to. At the moment of his creation, this was a whole separate but identical version of me. The answer to whether or not I could endure the uncertainty and challenges presented would come when I spoke to this doppelganger for myself. If he wasn't like me or if we were somehow on different pages, then I had no idea what I could do about it other than kill him, which I wasn't willing to do. Not without damn good cause, at least.

Walking into this, I just hoped that we were both still on the same side here. I decided there was no point in being coy and just dived into it.

"We still on the same page?" I asked him bluntly, approaching him from behind as he gazed into the glass tank. The fleshy, mostly formed body of the new synthetic Teal'c inside of it gave me a moment of pause before I stepped up beside my duplicate and gazed at it alongside him. At least this tank's purpose and my duplicate's interest was now obvious...

"I think so," the other 'me' answered, still looking at what I suppose would soon be his new teammate. "We thought about this beforehand based on what we saw on the show. We gave careful consideration to the humanitarian concerns we'd have. My thoughts seem fairly consistent to what they once were, at least. No great revelations have come forth and I don't have the urge to pull a Skynet. So yeah, I think we're still on the same page here."

"What about praising the Omnissiah?" I asked. He and I both shared a grin at that before he responded.

"Nah" he said. "I would probably have been the only one back at base to understand that reference. Besides that Harper kid, maybe. Come to think of it, they'd all have probably been more alarmed if I suddenly started praising some entity they'd never heard of before."

"They didn't take it well when they found out you guys were all Terminators?" I asked rather rhetorically.

"Not at all," he confirmed. "I think I managed to calm things down a bit by talking about how we were all certain of our identities, even if we weren't sure why we were suddenly machines. I brought up the idea of having our brains transferred into android duplicates or maybe having our thought patterns copied while the organic SG-Wolf remained imprisoned on the planet. Hammond really didn't like that last one and brought up some other techs and scientists to brainstorm the idea after I mentioned it. By that point, Carter snapped out of her own shock to offer her own opinions and Teal'c and Daniel followed and joined the discussion shortly afterwards. The discussions and examinations continued until we all started feeling weak and they hustled us back through the gate. I promised Hammond I'd find out what happened and make a report back to them if we found you guys or got transferred back into our human bodies."

"Well, that's not too terrible," I remarked. Turning me head to look back at the synthetic Teal'c in the tank in front of us, I frowned at it. "Teal'c's duplicate still didn't survive?"

Synthetic Macduff shook his head. "Just like last time, there was apparently too much instability with the added brainwaves from his symbiote. He attacked me while we were trying to make emergency repairs on some equipment and I had to fight him until Harlen showed up and shot him."

"Though he gave you that before he went, huh?" I asked, indicating the torn skin-like material on his face.

"He ripped a pipe off of a machine and smashed the jagged end into my face as I tried to dodge it," he told me, lightly running his fingers over the mutilated tissue as he did so.

"Ow," I winced, imagining that happening to me. It was easy to do so since my exact copy was here to demonstrate a close facsimile of what that would look like, just without the blood and accompanying viscera.

"Yeah," Metal Me agreed. "The weird part was that while I definitely felt the blow, blocking out the pain was fairly simple after a few moments. I don't even really feel much of anything from it now."

"Weird, but useful," I remarked, earning a shrug from my counterpart.

There was an ensuing silence that I found only slightly uncomfortable as neither of us said anything for a few seconds. Eventually, I decided that sticking with what I/he/we both knew was for the best. Knowing myself, as accepting as this as I'm trying to be, I could probably use some reassurance that everything wasn't lost. And who better to offer that reassurance then me?

"Well, at least leaving the stargate active will be nice," I remarked. "We'll probably be able to send along anything you guys need while you're here and keep you relatively updated with what's happening on Earth and elsewhere."

I very much doubted anyone was going to send a nuke here because of 'security concerns' like O'Neill said the first time around. And if anyone brought it up, I would happily explain to them how dumb and what a waste of resources that'd be. If these guys were our copies, then saying they weren't trustworthy was like saying we weren't trustworthy. Like suggesting we should be shot once we 'knew too much' or left the mountain on leave. As of this moment, they're all inclined to work with us and be on our side. No sense killing them all off when they can make themselves useful.

"Sending along some engineers who can help make sense of all this might be a big help too," my duplicate added, gesturing to the facility around us. "I'm sure we would be appreciative for the assistance and there's probably a lot to learn about all this stuff."

"Just so long as Harlen doesn't kidnap and make copies of anyone we send," I added sarcastically. "You realize that it'll probably take a bit to convince Hammond it's worth the risk sending more people who may potentially be compromised."

"I know," he said, raising his hands up in surrender. "I know. Trust will have to be earned. But, at least we've already taken some right steps. And it'll take awhile until my Carter figures out how to extend our battery life so we can stay offworld for any extended time anyway, so that's one handicap that should allow us all some breathing room and insurance against the Robot Uprising."

He said that last part making air quotes with his fingers and I laughed at how I looked when I did that with a sarcastic tone. He joined me a moment later, seeming to enjoy the absurdity of the situation just a bit as we both went back to being silent and just looked at the Teal'c-Bot in the tank as it lay there.

"Colonel MacDuff?" we both heard Harlen call out from the adjacent room. "Colonel MacDuff?"

"Ugh," my counterpart and I groaned simultaneously. We grinned as we realized that we did that in sync with each other.

"We better go and see what he wants," my counterpart remarked. I nodded in agreement and we both started walking back together. As we walked back to the chamber with the rest of our teams still audibly chatting, I caught Cyber-Me looking at his arm with rather intense scrutiny.

"Feeling any different?" I asked him.

"Nah, it feels fine," he answered quickly. "But, uh... it just occurred to me that most of this skin is pretty much for cosmetics. Did you ever think about how cool and useful it'd be if we had a metal arm?" he commented.

I looked at by counterpart for a moment before letting out a laugh as I pictured a Winter Soldier version of me running around and scaring the crap out of jaffa as I did all sorts of ridiculous stunts and slaughtered any goa'uld that stood in my way. I even pictured a little symbol for Earth on the arm instead of a red star to depict my allegiance.

Yeah, he was definitely still me.

~SG-WOLF~

Daniel had gone missing.

We had arrived on this planet and had shown up in some sort of research complex. It looked like another compound meant for research or some sort of holdout for a people or species that died out for some reason.

We realized that this place was probably dangerous when we found some sort of warning effigy placed near the gate. A crude wrought iron pole had been harshly driven into the ground and depicted some sort of entwined nest of hissing snakes. Honestly, I thought it looked ugly as hell.

I allowed for a search of the immediate area around the stargate. I rationalized it with the idea that there may have been more clues around us as to what had happened here and we wouldn't have to expose ourselves to any radiation to do it. Daniel had disappeared during the ten minutes we were apart. All that we found was the mysterious object that my teammates overlooked, but that I recognized immediately.

The Quantum Mirror.

I had considered going after him, but decided it would not only be dangerous but likely impossible. Daniel had not only taken the remote with him, making me nervous about tampering with the mirror in any way, but he was lucky as hell to have been allowed through to that Earth at just the right time before the goa'uld dialed in and not during one of their evacuations. Not to mention lucky to have even been allowed through the iris using an SG-1 code and not have been shot. Their version of the SGC was caught up in a defense against the goa'uld and a hurried evacuation off world. Given all that I doubted I'd make it through, let alone make a difference.

Hours passed as there was still no sign of Daniel. At least I didn't have to fake my concern for him as I called in Daniel's missing status back to the SGC and brought in Lion (SG-5) and Hawk (SG-3) to help conduct a search. We combed the facility and eventually looped back to the gate to report on our findings. Of course, Daniel wasn't found.

I was just giving direction to the teams that had already made it back when we heard yelling coming from one of the labs near the stargate. With weapons up, we all moved in to investigate only to find Daniel lying on the floor near the Quantum Mirror. He had what looked like a staff blast injury to his upper right arm.

The medic from Hawk was kneeling next to him before I could even call for him. I took a knee on Daniel's other side and tried to stay out of the way but was ready to assist if the medic asked for it.

"Lennex!" Daniel reached for me as I knelt.

"It's alright Daniel," I told him, taking his hand. "Just relax and lie still."

Clutched in Daniel's hand and forced into mine was a piece of yellow notebook paper. Passing it to Carter behind me, I heard her unfolding and examining it but my attention was still on Daniel.

"Lennex, they're coming," Daniel gasped to us. "They're coming..."

"Just lie still," I told him again. "Let the medic work on you."

The blast didn't look particularly fatal, but I didn't want Daniel to aggravate the injury further. The plasma from the staff blast may cauterize the wound, but that's a hell of a lot of trauma to the victim's flesh. As a stretcher was unfolded from somebody's pack, I felt a grim feeling settle over me. Events were in motion again and I had to be ready. This invasion presented too many opportunities to pass up and I had to make the most of it.

The invasion was coming and I hoped like hell we were ready for it.

AN: Relax, I'm not dead and neither is this story.

I really wanted to get this chapter published today, so please forgive any editing mistakes.

Ladies and Gentlemen; Seamus Harper now works at the SGC. God help them all. Congrats to anyone who recognized the name! I tried to grasp the flamboyant nature of the cheeky engineer, but hope it didn't come off as over the top.

Thoughts on the helmet? I didn't want to overdo it, but I thought that equipping it with a few basic tools like that might be more realistic given the current tech and for an early prototype. We also got a peek at what future versions might look like and also give an excuse to not have everyone wearing those large helmets which don't really do anything against most of their enemies, especially jaffa. It made sense to not wear them in the show from both a realism standpoint and TV one. We can both see the actor's faces and it makes sense that they wouldn't always wear them when they didn't really do much to protect them.

You might be surprised to learn that the idea of smart glass tech was first turned into a product in 1998 with the EyeTap. The idea has changed and shrunk considerably since then, but it's not as ridiculous as you might think. It's worth looking up if you're at all interested in the concept.

I hope that scene with the dead SG team members wasn't too depressing. I wanted to impress upon my MC and the readers that safety isn't a guaranteed thing. The show mentioned it a few times and the books made a bigger deal of it, but these teams don't operate with impunity offworld. Any number of things can happen and not everyone has the plot armor of SG-1 to protect them.

Any feedback is appreciated! Do you guys like where I'm going with some of this stuff, or do you think I'm maybe reaching for too much? I'd like to think that I'm doing a fair bit of world building, but I can understand if people think I'm overdoing it. And there's always that one guy who thinks I'm under-doing it and wants more. That's not a sleight in the least, but you know who you are ;)

The poll has now closed! It was open longer than I intended, but that's just the way stuff goes sometimes. Results are final and we'll be continuing this story in a linear fashion, going through the seasons and relevant episodes I want to write about in detail. If I miss a specific episode you really want to see, shoot me a PM and I'll do a special flashback or something if I see enough interest or think I might've missed an opportunity for a great chapter or at least half of one dedicated to explaining events as my MC would handle it.

I know I haven't updated in awhile, but my other story really took off and the holidays were even busier this year than I anticipated. I'll have more time for writing in the near future and I hope to have a new chapter out for each of my stories every month or so, but we'll see.

Next time; the season one finale!