DISCLAIMER: The story, and characters and anything and everything else concerning SG: SG1 belong to MGM, Gekko, Secret Productions etc, while Voyager and all who sail in her belong to Paramount, they are so not mine and no money is being made from this and no copyright infringement is intended, absolutely none what so ever.
AUTHORS NOTES: I need for you dear readers to cross the lines of disbelief. Star Trek for the moment does not exist in our Stargate World. And the SGC is as carefully hidden from Voyager as Section 31. In fact, they have no historical record of the Stargate program.
TIME LINE: this takes place just after Need for Stargate and Infinite Regress for Voyager. (Slight note on continuity: Since this falls into season 2 of SG1 the Replicators, aka pre-Borg Lego-spiders, had not been encountered yet, so Sam & Janet won't freak when they go to the food replicaters and order blue jello : ))
AKNOWLEDGEMENT: Thanks a 100 fold to Granger my beta reader for cleaning this up.
DEDICATION: Okay Robbie, this one is for you.
ARCHIVE: Only with the permission of the author.
Star Crossed Love
By Elizabeth Carter
Part 1
SG1, flagship team of the Stargate Command, was on a long but not dreary mission. For nearly a week they had been on M3R233, one of twelve moons orbiting a large ringed gas giant. What they found was a large cache of mineral deposits and very friendly indigenous people. The time spent here would be well worth it.
But SG1 was not quite itself. Colonel Jack O'Neill was in command, Teal'c was there for muscle power and Goa'uld information, and Captain Samantha Carter, doctor of astrophysics, was the chief scientist. But Dr. Jackson was still on down time back on earth considering that it had only been three days since the incident on PXR636 where he had became addicted to a sarcophagus, with an almost narcotic need. Dr. Janet Fraiser had not cleared him for duty and had insisted that he should be off duty for a full week. General George Hammond had agreed with her assessment.
The fourth member on this particular mission was, in fact, the good doctor, Captain Janet Frasier. She was accompanying the team for medical purposes. The task of medical evaluations of a planet normally fell on SG8 with SG3 covering their six. But on certain occasions, with certain missions, Janet accompanied the flagship team.
M3R323 was inhabited by a settlement that could have fit in with the Native Americans in the 17th century, in particular the Dakota tribes, or Sioux to the English tongue. Janet had discovered that their Healer had some exceptional medicines both for anesthetics and also a curative for common ailments such as the flu and other similar diseases.
Janet enjoyed talking with the indigenous medical personnel of alien cultures, both primitive and advanced. Eighty percent of earth's medicines came from plant life found in the tropics of rainforests. Such was the case on this moon also. Janet was welcomed back any time she wanted to talk with the Shaman.
The basis of trade with this planet focused on their medicine and on some unique crystals from the large caverns twelve clicks from the village. The crystals in the cave, Captain Samantha Carter discovered, would power death gliders and other Goa'uld ships. Actually the crystalline formations almost looked like those found on P3X562, the planet Jack O'Neill had renamed Lazarus, where the crystal entities resided. The crystals here on this moon, however, were not sentient. And they were nearly equal in power to naquaada, though Carter had yet to discover their place on the periodic table.
The La'Cota, as the tribe called themselves, wanted protection from the Cahlash, the unmakers, and their serpent-demons, aka the Goa'uld and serpent guard. Considering that SG1 had destroyed two of Apophis's ships above Earth not long ago and that the old snake head had to be dead, it wouldn't be hard to protect them. So SG1 had promised to safeguard the populous of the tribe from Goa'uld invasion.
The troup was going home in the next day, so Sam had wanted to do a little more research on another 'gate that the tribe had shown her when they first came. Janet, always curious, decided to tag along, much to the blonde's delight.
When asked what the second gate was, the Shaman stated it was a gate of the Ancestors. It revealed things that were not, and things that had not yet happened, and things of long ago. Sam considered the implications and thought as she now looked at the rather organic-looking gate that it was some marvelous geological formation and nothing more.
"Do you think the tribe was trying to replicate the idea of the Stargate for religious reasons?" Janet asked as she stepped closer to the crudely carved gate. "Like Stonehenge?"
"Sounds reasonable to me. You know people say they feel things when they go to Stonehenge."
"Do you believe that?" Janet asked her companion.
The blonde shrugged. "Working with the Stargate, I'm starting to think a lot of things are possible. I am not about to go and start talking to animal totems or anything like your buddy, Shaman Karoush, but, hey, you never know. I've seen stranger things."
"You believe that the La'Cota can turn themselves into large cats, like they say they can?"
"I believe they believe it," Sam smiled.
"What a scientific answer, Doctor Carter," Janet teased.
"A safe answer." The blonde was still grinning.
Indeed, the tribal grounds of the La'Cota had several icons of large hunting cats such as lions, tigers (sorry no bears) and leopards, puma, jaguars, and lynx, cheetah and others that looked like the Scottish wild cat and the sphinx breed of domestic feline of Egypt. There were nine sects within the tribe, or rather nine prides, and each had a head of state, as it were, to represent them in the La'Cota Nation.
Everyone, not just the religious leaders, claimed they could transform themselves into large cats. Indeed, SG1 had grown accustomed to having large cats roaming the village as one might expect a neighborhood in suburbia to have many breeds of dogs.
Sam and Janet had both accepted the situation the same as anyone within the SGC would, willingly crossing the line from disbelief into it could be possible. Right now Sam was in disbelief that the 'organic' Gate was that, organic. She had a deep scientific feeling that it was something far far more than that.
Hitting the button on her radio she commed her CO, "Colonel, I think that the second gate we discovered warrants further study, I'd like to request an extended period of time to…."
**Carter, what ever you're going to say, I'll second it. Make the call to Hammond for a few extra days. It's time we checked in anyway.**
"Sir?" Cater had been expecting an argument.
** T'vook offered to take me on a little fishing trip. He says the bass are…well, they are huge. Teal'c …well he's made a few new friends. I don't see that a couple of days would hurt. We'll send some of the crystals through the 'Gate and ask the General for a few more days so you can study that carved rock or whatever.**
Janet looked up in time to see Sam flash a brilliant smile, the sort that brightened the astrophysist's whole face and made Janet feel butterflies.
**He may send SG10 to help you.**
SG10, of course, was one of the few purely scientific teams, the other being SG7.
"Yes, sir. And thank you. Carter out."
To Janet her blonde companion looked like a child with a brand new toy. "Sam, I'll make the call. Why don't you start your investigations on the organic gate."
Sam's smile grew broader. "Oh, thanks Janet, I owe you." Sam watched as the doctor turned to the DHD and started punching the panels that would activate the gate. 'She has a seriously cute…' Sam winced. 'Don't go there...don't go there …bad Carter, bad!' the scientist chided herself. And she went back to the scanners she had been using and started to analyze the constriction of the organic gate.
She was surprised, yet not so surprised, to find that the carved gateway was made out of naquaada. It still had that nature-carved-this-thing look to it and yet prehistoric hominids could have had a hand in its construction. It was like they were indeed trying to replicate the Stargate using the natural geological structures in the area. Like the Garden of the Gods back home in Colorado Springs, this area was teaming with natural rock formations.
Behind her Sam could hear the ever-familiar kawoosh of the Stargate's wormhole opening up. A second later she felt Janet plow into her.
"Sam!!" Janet cried out and tackled the blonde to the earth, sending them both through the organic gate's mouth.
Just as Sam was about to ask what in the world was going on she heard the roar of a very large, very hungry forest cat. The white and blue-stripped tiger crouched low one moment, the next it sprang up and rushed the two women. Just about then there was another cascade, as if another wormhole had opened up.
And in a spit second everything had changed.
The away team had been working on the collection of a cache of dilithium crystals. They had been working on the deposit for a week. It was, in fact, a payload of the ore. Though not refined, both Seven of Nine and B'Elanna Torres were confident they could make it core ready with some tweaking in the labs on Deck 11.
It was also a time to catch up on some much-needed routine repairs that could not be done in space. Having no spaceport, Captain Kathryn Janeway had ordered Voyager to land on an M-class moon, one of twelve that was orbiting a ringed gas giant.
It was also an opportunity for much needed R&R. Many of the crew had gone exploring mindful to stay within ten clicks of Voyager. But when not on duty, the entire crew was, in a word, playing. Neelix and several of the crewmembers had discovered large fish that looked like a hybrid of North American large mouth bass and Japanese carp. There were also stags and elk and wild game birds for the taking. They were massive and would supply Voyager with pounds of meat for a long while. There were also thousands of kilos of grains, and bushels of fruit and vegetables. Many of the varieties were transplanted to the hydroponics bay.
Commander Chakotay and several others that shared an anthropological and archeology interest were besides themselves when they found an ancient encampment of what could have been Native Americans from the northern states, Chakotay had declared them cousins to the Lakota and Dakota tribes. Even their religious totems were very similar, save for one. Instead of the Thunder Bird, their large religious icon seemed to be a massive puma. Though, of course, there was a significant difference. They were homo-felineus, perhaps a distant relation to the Bastet, a feline hominid species in the beta quadrant.
The ruins also depicted that once upon a time there were rather large hunting cats in residence. That was why the Captain had everyone who went on shore leave armed with a phaser locked on the highest stun setting. She didn't want to kill the cats, but she didn't want the cats killing her crewmembers because the beasts thought the crew might make a nice snack.
Another great bit of interest was the archeological discovery of two circular constructions, one crudely hand hewn and the other delicately sophisticated. Both portals were made out of the same material, a rare quartz substance the periodic table had named Naquaada. B'Elanna, Seven, and Kathryn Janeway buzzed over the discovery like children with a new toy.
"Well, at count there are thirty-nine glyphs and nine chevrons," B'Elanna said. "I don't see any way to control this portal, but it seems that the inner ring spins around and the outer one locks in the chevrons. But I don't see how it's activated or how it would draw its power."
"Naquaada, though rare, is equallyif not more powerful than dilithium," Janeway said. "We've found some of the naquaada in the crystal mines. I think if we harvest some of it, we could refine it and use it as a power source."
"Perhaps to power the alcoves," Seven ventured. "It would be less taxing on Voyager's power."
"Hey, good idea Seven," B'Elanna said.
"I agree," the captain remarked. "You two make up some plans and I'll go over them with you once we are space born." Janeway looked at the crude gate and back to the more beautiful construction. "Seven, any idea what the glyphs are? Chakotay was clueless."
Seven had for three days studied the glyphs. The former Borg turned to "The glyphs depict drawings of constellations, Captain. I have discovered by running the glyphs in astrometrics that many of them represent known constellations in our own galaxy, Orion for example," Seven pointed to the hourglass shaped glyph. "As for what the others are, I'll have to run further comparisons but I believe that there must have been a controlling system for this gateway."
"Key in what? Coordinates?" B'Elanna furrowed her brown. "For what purpose?"
"That I have yet to discover."
"I think I know," Janeway cut in
The Captain of Voyager walked over to the crude gate. "This gate closely resembles the Guardian of Forever, a temporal gateway discovered by Enterprise about eighty some years ago. It was able to lock on a planet and thrust a traveler through a temporal wormhole. The traveler could go backwards or forwards in time. Passage was only one way. As everyone knows, you can only travel one way through a wormhole whether stellar phenomenon or temporal."
"So this one is a Guardian of Forever?" B'Elanna asked as she touched the hewn rock.
"Then perhaps the indigenous people were trying to manufacture a second such portal with this seemingly more advanced gate," Seven reasoned.
"That does sound plausible," Janeway said. "But unfortunately this Guardian of Forever is dormant. That could be the reason for the more sophisticated portal."
"Indeed, there are no power readings whatsoever in the Guardian of Forever above what is inherent in the naquaada itself," Seven explained as she scanned the crude gate with her tricorder. "If we wish to use it we will have to find a way to power the portals."
Janeway thought for a moment. If this was indeed a Guardian of Forever, then it might be possible to make a temporal wormhole to Earth and simply leap home. Her grin broadened as she instructed, "Ladies, we are going to find away to make this work. I think we might just have found a way home."
Perspective is a very odd thing.
As Sam fell forward her instinct was to cradle Janet, to cover the doctor lest the smallest amount of harm come to her. It was not to be so. It was Janet who covered the blonde, the doctor's torso covering Sam's back, neck and head as if she were Cassandra back in the Gate room all that time ago.
Sam could hear the sound of the tiger approaching and then nothing. The sensation was not dissimilar to leaping in the Gate. But yet it had a new feel to it, a new vertigo to grow accustomed to. Then the white blindness vanished.
In the back of the astrophysicist's mind something told her she had gone through the hewn gateway. Something stirred in her memory, but for the moment Sam could not think of what, though it gave her an odd creeping sensation in the pit of her stomach.
Seven's first reaction in hearing the kawoosh of the watery pathway was to thrust B'Elanna Torres out of danger. The superior strength of the ex-Borg collided with the Klingon, tackling her to the ground. Had she not, the activation of the gates' event horizon would have taken Torres with its vast explosion of energy.
Janeway was standing near the Guardian of Forever and ducked when the more elaborate gate activated. For a moment there was what looked like a pool of shimmering blue water contained within the rings. Then something extraordinary happened. The Guardian of Forever activated in a smoky white vaporous mist.
Out of it came a massive white tiger with blue strips followed by two females, both in some kind of military garb. It looked like some giant had thrown her toys at great velocity seeing how the females and the tiger fell out of the portal. The women rolled in a mass of arms and legs. The tiger roared its confused fury, whipped around and roared once more, seeming to blame its prey for what had happened to it.
The smaller female lifted her head and took what looked like some artistically designed phaser and aimed it.
Janeway raised her own phaser, uncertain if she should be pointing at the small redhead or the tiger. The redhead decided for her. The pulse of her phaser hit the tiger in a flare of blue-white energy. The tiger groaned and fell down.
As this was happening, B'Elanna rolled over pushing against Seven's shoulders. "What in the hell…" Then she saw. The Guardian of Forever activated and three lifeforms toppled out at a great speed. 'That's gotta hurt,' said a wee voice in the back of her head.
Sam regained control of her senses and noticed three alien females that did not belong to the La'Cota. Sam rose to her feet, lifted the M16 and trained it on the two standing near the Stargate farthest from her, , her finger flagging the trigger. Her blue eyes never left the women, one blonde with silver adornments and one brunette with cranial ridges.
Janet had the shorter redhead covered with the Zatnicitel.
Captain Kathryn Janeway knew she had to keep things under control. These human looking aliens were holding themselves like professional soldiers. Their nerves on edge, no doubt due to the tiger that had decided that they might make a good dinner. And falling out of the Guardian of Forever didn't help either. Whenever they were from, they were no doubt completely disorientated and leery. Having dealt with the '39's, Janeway figured that these two human females had stepped out of time.
Sam looked at the three of them. 'They're not Goa'uld, thank providence for that,' she thought. The caramel skinned one kept her odd looking zat aimed on her and Janet as did the adorned blonde. The older woman, however, was slowly putting her's away. From the look of it, the older redhead was the leader of the trio.
Janeway noticed the antique, mottled green uniforms and patches that had images of earth and an inverted 'V' shape on one shoulder and on the other what could only be a marker of one of the chevrons on the elaborate gate. It had the identification of SG1 on the patch. This pair had to have knowledge of the elaborate gate. Both wore black multi-pocketed vests, no doubt armored. Both had antique ballistic handguns and knives openly visible on their persons.
"My name is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the USS Voyager. We mean you no harm."
The blonde holding the large firearm didn't lower her weapon as she narrowed her blue eyes and studied the woman who had spoken. "USS Voyager?" she questioned.
That did not sound right. What was a navel officer doing on M3R323? From the UAV, Sam knew there were large lakes equal to the Great Lakes of the States but there were no oceans on this moon. Their uniforms were odd too. Well, two of them wore uniforms, while the other one looked like some sort of cat-suite. 'What self-respecting woman would agree to wear that outside of a gym?' Sam pondered. The only weapons they had were the odd zats.
"Captain Samantha Carter, SGC. My companion is Doctor Janet Frasier."
No one lowered their weapons.
Janeway watched the young blonde. She was extraordinarily young to be a captain of a ship. But Kathryn could tell that this very young woman was very professional, very military. No doubt she could hold command.
"I think we'll all be a little more comfortable if we put our weapons down. Seven, Lieutenant…."
B'Elanna reluctantly lowered her phaser. Once she did, so did the one who called herself Samantha. Seven lowered her's and so did the tiny redhead.
"My own companions are Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres and Seven of Nine."
Sam and Janet did a double take at the name of the tall blonde but said nothing.
"I don't understand. Why is the Navy here? Where are the La'Cota?" Sam asked.
Janeway knew this was never easy explaining temporal travel. "Um…we don't have a water going vessel, we have a starship."
Neither woman seemed concerned or, even more shocking, surprised by this.
"Your vessel is orbiting M3R323?" Sam said.
"M3R323?" Janeway frowned.
"The disengaged binary code for the moon, Captain," Seven offered.
"Okay, so we…" Sam looked at the twin gates. The organic gate looked even more aged, lichens and moss now grew on its sides. Even the cracked steps to the Stargate were covered with thick moss and more disconcerting itself was that the DHD was gone!
"Oh boy," Sam teetered for a moment and was caught up by Janet's comforting hand.
"Sam…?"
"Janet, we have a major problem. I don't know how, not yet, but …I think were went forward in time."
"That is exactly what happened," Janeway agreed. Surprised yet again. "Perhaps we could return to our ship so we can discuss this. Captain, Doctor, we'd be honored if you were to join us."
"They aren't Goa'uld, Janet. I think we will be okay."
Janet nodded and stepped closer to her companion. From the corner of her mouth Sam whispered, "We'll trust them for now, but keep your eyes on the door."
The petite physician slowly nodded again.
B'Elanna looked at the two blondes. If it wasn't for the heels Seven wore she and the one named Samantha Carter would be of the same height. Doctor Fraiser was even shorter than B'Elanna. The Klingon estimated she couldn't be over five feet, and with the large black vest she looked even smaller, almost frail. But there was nothing frail in how she carried herself.
The thing that puzzled the Klingon was that they didn't seem startled when they saw her. The cranial ridges didn't put them off at all, no questions, nothing. Just acceptance. It was if they were indeed members of the federation, for their pure acceptance of temporal travel, alien looking females, and advanced weapons.
The Klingon looked again to the odd looking phasers in holsters strapped to the legs of the newcomers. Okay, so maybe advanced is a relative team. She wondered if the large rifle Captain Carter carried was anything like Klingon disrupter rifles.
Once aboard Voyager, Janeway stepped off the transporter pad and handed her phaser over to Tuvok, her Vulcan security officer. "It isn't customary to wear weapons aboard my ship," she explained. And she then nodded to her own crew to take their cues. B'Elanna disarmed herself as did Seven.
Sam took a deep intake of air and similarly disarmed. She didn't like it, not one bit, but she could understand the prudence this naval captain was taking. Janeway didn't know either Sam or Janet from Eve so she had no basis for trust. Of course Sam didn't have to trust the redheaded captain either.
She handed the chocolate skinned male her M16, as well as her ALICE vest that had the hostlers for her 9mm, the clips and K-bar. Janet did likewise, as another security officer came for her gear.
Looking at the tall, pointed-eared male, something in him reminded her of Teal'c, though obviously at least seventy-five pounds lighter and less muscle bound. Teal'c could put most linebackers to shame with his brickhouse build. Still there was something of this man that was very 'Teal'c-ish, as if he was a Jaffa but without the symbiote.
Janet must have recognized the similarities as well for she looked at Sam and raised an eyebrow in a very Teal'c-like manner.
"Commander Tuvok, this is Captain Samantha Carter and Doctor Janet Fraiser. They are our guests."
"I was under the impression that the moon was uninhabited," he said in his Vulcan monotone.
'Yep…. Very Teal'c-like,' Sam thought.
"It will be in the briefing. I want you to recall the senior staff, now."
"Aye, Captain," he said with a slight head bow, handing Sam's possessions to an ensign.
'Wonder if he is a distant relative to Teal'c?' Janet pondered to herself.
"Captain, Doctor, welcome aboard Voyager," Tuvok said now addressing the new comers.
"Thank you," both said in unison.
"Are you two uninjured? We can take you to sickbay," Janeway offered.
"Isn't that standard protocol?" Janet inquired. Any alien visiting the SGC, save for Master Bra'tac, was always ushered into the Infirmary to insure no contagions were brought to base.
"We have bio-filters…er…." Janeway stopped herself. She couldn't explain how the transports worked to women who had the appearance of coming from late twentieth or very early 21st century. "With our transportation technology we have a way to contain and filter out any contagions," she offered.
'But how do you detect Goa'uld?' both Sam and Janet thought privately.
'Perhaps the elf can detect Goa'uld, like Sam,' Janet guessed, thinking Tuvok looked like the descriptions of elves in the Lord of the Rings.
'The Captain was saying something about bio-filters before she cut herself off. Maybe like Janet's MRI they can detect the presence of a symbiote and alert security if one should try to infiltrate and try to get a foothold.' Sam thought again if it wasn't for the overgrowth on the Stargate and the Organic portal she would have thought she was in the company of the Tollens.
The long corridors of Voyager didn't faze either Sam or Janet, but both thought it was odd that a naval vessel had gone from gun-metal gray to white with blue utilitarian carpets. Carpets on a ship? Then of course a lot had changed since 98'.
Once Janeway had ushered her guests into the briefing room, they both looked around and were startled to see that the port windows revealing the forest outside.
"I thought you were orbiting the moon?" Sam said.
"We touched down to make repairs," B'Elanna answered for her captain.
"You're capable of vertical take off," Sam concluded. Not unlike the mother ships. She turned and saw the startled expressions of the trio. Now that was odd. Why would they be shocked by some of the information Sam knew? Unless, of course, the Stargate program was still unknown…… "What century is this?"
"By your calendar early twenty-fifth,-." Janeway said.
"Whoa." Sam and Janet chorused.
"Okay. I…..I realize that by the Grandfather Paradox you won't be able to tell us much of what happened past 1998, but this ship, your uniforms, you're not exactly the Navy, are you?"
"No," Janeway said as she stood leaning against her chair at the head of the table. "We are not. We belong to the United Federation of Planets."
Seven and B'Elanna looked at each other and then to their captain, wondering since when is the Klingon Empire and Maquis or Borg apart of the Federation?
"We belong to a naval-like military faction called Starfleet."
Once more Borg and Klingon looked at one another. Janeway caught the glances and lifted her hand ever so slightly, in a secret way telling both young women that it was too long and too complicated of a story to go into divisions right now.
Before long the rest of the senior staff entered. Sam and Janet watched as a large tattooed Native American sat to the Captain's right.
'First officer' Sam checked in her mind.
There was the elf Tuvok. An Asian man fresh out of training by the look of it, a young blonde male that set Sam's teeth on edge the moment he smiled at her and Janet. There was a lanky bald man as well, wearing some sort of metallic device on his right bicep. And of course B'Elanna Torres and Seven of Nine
They were all introduced, and pleasantries exchanged. Then came the questions.
"Can you tell me, Captain Carter, what does the SGC and SG1 on your patches stand for?" Janeway took her chair now, indicating that her staff as well as the guests should do the same.
"Stargate Command," Sam said easily as she had already introduced herself with it. "SG1 is the numeral designation for my team. SG1 is the flagship team." If they were spies for the System Lords Sam wasn't saying anything more than they already knew.
"Stargate." Seven raised the silver ocular implant. "Indicating the esthetic design of your insignia patch you mean the more elaborate gate do you not."
"Yes." Sam frowned. "I take it because of this vessel's interstellar capabilities you don't often use the Stargate."
"We do not," Seven answered.
Neither Sam nor Janet found this odd. After all, the System Lords and apparently the Asgard, had sprinkled the galaxy with humans. And the Tollens, not having experienced the Dark Ages, had advanced quite well beyond the Tau'ri. So who was to say another colony had not done the same?