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 2
"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?
"Are you telling me you and the Stargate Command regularly use the.this Stargate?" Janeway was stymied. "To explore?"
"Yes," Sam nodded clearly. "It creates a wormhole between two corresponding gates. The DHD, or Dial Home Devise, accesses the addresses. Unfortunately the DHD that was there in our time doesn't appear to be there now." Blue eyes narrowed. "That can be solved by manually dialing the address into the Gate, but the thing is where it's standing it lacks a power source."
At the word wormhole the whole table of Starfleet officers perked their ears.
It was Harry Kim who spoke. "A Wormhole. Captain, we can go home."
"What and leave Voyager!?" B'Elanna yelped. She wasn't about to leave her ship on a moon.
"Home, B'Elanna, doesn't that mean anything to you?" Kim asked.
"Wait," Sam interjected. "We fell out of time. In this time line I don't even know if the Stargate is still active. The only way to do that is to establish a wormhole and try to link to the one on earth. And by now even if it is still active SG1's IDC has to have changed. If the security is anything at all like it was at the SGC in our time, " she nodded to Janet "the iris will be in place, and believe me you don't want to jump through the gate when it is in place."
What's more, Sam knew that all this information was already possessed by the System Lords. It was nothing new. And besides, she didn't feel like jumping through a gate to smack into a triennium shield. And of course there was the singularity of time warping.
"Captain Carter is correct," Janeway said. "We do have priorities. Now, considering that you and Doctor Fraiser came out of the Guardian Forever, perhaps going back through it will put you into the right time line. As for the use of the Stargate now, I suggest another alterative landing site to see if it is even plausible. Perhaps an active Gate in the Alpha Quadrant. Captain Carter, if you could perhaps give us a list of mapped Stargates we can cross-reference them with what information we have in our database."
"How is the Guardian of Forever activated?" Janet asked. "I saw no means of power during our timeline, despite the fact we are here."
"That will be one of the equations we'll investigate, Doctor. It was a dormant gate as well until you came through."
"The Stargate is a super capacitor," Sam explained. "Now if the Guardian of Forever is made out of the same element as the Stargate that would explain the surge of power. But something else had to have been added to this equation, otherwise every time the Stargate was activated the Guardian of Forever would also have been active."
Janeway looked at the very young blonde woman. "You are more than a solider," she said pleasantly.
It was Janet's face that was beaming with pride as she too looked to Samantha.
"I'm a doctor of theoretical quantum mechanics with an expertise in plasma particle physics."
"She's the leading astrophysicist on the SGC," Janet said, obviously very proud of her friend. "She spearheaded wormhole theory. And she is the top expert on Stargate technology. "
"Wait!" B'Elanna said. "Whoa, wait. You mean you're *the*Dr. Samantha Carter?"
Sam frowned, feeling the heat rise around her neck as a nervousness surrounded her heart in a tight grip. "I am," she admitted shyly.
"Your work is required study in the Academy," the Chief of Engineering stuttered. "God, you're one of my heroes. What you wrote, . . . Your theories are . . . brilliant," she exclaimed, hardly believing that she was meeting her idol.
Janeway herself was humbled to be in Carter's presence. It was one of her dreams as well. She had met Amelia Eireheart, one of her heroes. She had the DeVinci program because he was another one of her heroes. Einstein was as another and so was Carter. She also noted the flush of pink that hit the elegant cheeks of the young blonde. 'Modest too,' the captain observed.
"From history we know that you worked for a branch of government called NORAD," Seven of Nine said, as she too was familiar with Dr. Carter's work, just as she was for several dozens of scientists. "I would surmise this was not entirely accurate."
"Well, I have an office at NORAD, but yeah, it's a cover story. The SGC isn't for public consumption. The general populace would not be able to deal with travel to other planets, aliens and starships. They all think of Roswell and Star Wars."
"Oh, Wormhole Extreme! That was one hell of a show, I loved it," Tom Paris said. "Man, it must be something to watch it for real rather than as a holoprogram."
"Wormhole Extreme?" Sam shrugged. "Never heard of it." And Sam watched a lot of sci-fi shows and movies just to see if they get it anywhere near the truth. When she got home she would have to ask Cassandra about the show. Maybe it was a cartoon, like Dragon ball-Z that the young girl was into.
"Ah, come on, you don't watch."
"Ensign Paris, we are off the topic," Janeway snapped. "Ladies, perhaps we should adjourn for a meal before we start lab-work. I am sure you two are hungry."
Janet, who knew that her beautiful companion easily became anemic, decided for the blonde. "Actually, that's a fine idea."
"Great," Janeway smiled. "I'll also have Neelix, our morale officer, take care of guest quarters for you both. I am regretful to announce we are low on individual quarters."
"Captain," Sam said, "on field missions I'm accustomed to sharing campsites with three male teammates. Sharing quarters with Dr. Fraiser won't be a problem."
The blonde looked to her diminutive companion to make sure this was so and was more than relieved to see one of those very rare, very reserved smiles that Janet seemed to only to give Sam. The younger woman felt her heart stir with flocks of butterflies anytime she saw that smile. Quickly, before her look could be counted as too long and almost flirtatious, Sam forced herself to look elsewhere.
"Well, that explains a few things," B'Elanna said as she, Seven and Captain Janeway were sharing a table in the mess hall with Sam and Janet.
Sam bit into an odd looking purple tuber, trying not to wince as the extremely bizarre flavor hit her tongue. She noticed the engineer watching her and ventured a quizzical "What?"
"Your 'no-reaction' to me," The caramel hand touched her ridges. "And to Seven."
Both women from 1998 smiled. "Well, considering we've come across some unique species in our travels, you're not exactly surprising, Lieutenant," Janet answered.
"You were addressed as Doctor. If you are in the military is it not customary to address someone by title rather then salutation?" Seven asked.
"That's true, but because I am a medical doctor, actually the CMO of the SGC, it's more typical to call me by Doctor than rank. But I am a Captain, too."
"But neither of you are in command of a ship." Seven was a little puzzled.
To those of Voyager this wasn't surprising since Seven's experience with military rank was limited to Starfleet.
"Oh, ah, well, ranks are a little funny." Sam said. "See, in the Navy and apparently Starfleet, Captain is different than Captain in any other branch of the military. Janet and I are Captains in the Air Force. The equivalent rank would be Lt. Commander on a float...er starship."
Janet continued to watch Sam dig around on her plate. True, the purple what-ever-it-was didn't look at all appetizing and the taste was completely weird.
"Leola root isn't my favorite either," Janeway said, noticing the reluctance on the part of the young blonde to dig into the lunch. "Let me see if I can get us all something else."
"Um?" Sam smiled. "Do you have blue jello?"
"I'll see what I can do." The captain rose and left to talk with Neelix.
Janet snickered. "People are going to think that's all you eat, that and salad."
"What? I like blue jello." Sam shrugged. "I'm not a huge fan of sweets, but I like blue jello." She smiled.
B'Elanna chuckled. She heard the distinctive lover's banter in the doctor's voice. It was the same banter she gave her own beloved. Under the table, she placed her hand upon Seven's knee and softly caressed the long limb. With her fingertips she wrote out the words 'I love you.'
Under that same table, Seven took the nimble fingers of her lover and softly squeezed them, telling B'Elanna that she was loved too.
When Janeway returned, she had Neelix in tow carrying a tray of lemon chicken (or what ever the bird was on the planet), salads, and from the replicaters a bowl of blue jello. Of course, the entire table eagerly dug into the new platters of food with hearty appetites.
"You mentioned the Grandfather Paradox," Seven began, trying to get more information from the other blonde astrophysicist. "This suggests you're familiar with the inherent dangers of time travel and the disruptive nature it could impose."
"Yes." Sam nodded, shifting a bit of meat to the corner of her cheek so she could talk around it. "When I was in the Pentagon I studied the Stargate and possible applications it could be used for. Time travel was one of them. But it was disregarded soon after. The gate can't be utilized for time travel because the dangers are astronomical. I mean, sure, to stop Hitler before he invades Poland might sound like a good idea but then so many things could go terribly wrong after that. A traveler in time can not interfere with the natural progression of what has happened."
"I couldn't agree with you more," Janeway offered. "Temporal paradox gives me a week long migraine. And you're right, Captain, it isn't a legitimate pursuit of science."
As they all continued eating, Janeway explained, "It was never actually determined if the Guardian of Forever is a natural phenomenon, a sentient being, or technology. What I can tell you is that we have not, in all of our travels, ever encountered a Stargate."
"Never?" Sam found this hard to believe.
"How," Janet spoke up as if voicing Sam's thoughts, "can this be? I mean there are thousands of gates strewn all over the galaxy. You are telling me that in this century no one knows of the Stargate network?!"
Sam paled. "That means that either the Stargate is still a secret on earth, it was lost or.. It's like Daniel and his traveling the Quantum Mirror." She stopped there and said nothing further of alternative universes. Right now there was more than enough on her plate trying to figure out how the activation of the Stargate had activated the Guardian of Forever.
The traveling in time was now simple to understand. The Guardian of Forever was designed to do just that, thrust a traveler forward or backward in time.
Sam thought about it, thinking that if you place two super conductors next to each other it is more than possible to charge the other with energy. With enough power, the other gate would become activate. It appeared that for a period of time the Guardian of Forever stored the energy of active wormholes from the Stargate and acted like a battery or generator. Once enough energy was collected from residual power, the inactivate gate itself would activate.
That was a logical conclusion. Of course there were going to be other variables to consider, but at least Sam now had an active theory. Over lunch she had bounced this idea off of Seven of Nine and B'Elanna Torres. Both women agreed that Sam's theory was on the right track and would go to Astrometrics to start scans to confirm the theory.
As the five women were eating, the mess hall doors whooshed open and closed allowing the youngest member of the Voyager crew to pad up to the captain and her guests.
Janet was the first to notice the strawberry blonde Katerian. The smile on the doctor's face caught Sam's eye and she turned to look at what had stolen the smaller woman's attention.
"He-ey there," Janet said presently.
Sam winked to the girl and flashed her best friendly smile.
"Hi," Naomi waved. "You're the lost ones, huh?"
"Yeah, that's right," Janet said. "And who are you, little one?"
"I'm Naomi Wildman. I am the Captain's Assistant. If you need anything just ask, okay?"
"Wow, that's a huge job. I am impressed," Sam said. She touched her hand to her chest. "Well, my name is Samantha Carter, but you can call me Sam."
"Oh! My mommy's name is Samantha," Naomi gushed. "But everyone calls her Samantha or Ensign Wildman. No one calls her Sam. It's kinda neat though."
Sam chuckled. "Well, I've been called that most of my life."
"How come?" the girl asked.
"Because my dad wanted a boy," the young captain replied as she flashed another grin.
"Oh, well, I am glad you're a girl. Samantha for a boy would be silly," Naomi pointed out.
At that the whole table broke out laughing.
"Sometimes you are too much, Spike." B'Elanna ruffled their girl's locks, which promptly got the Klingon a scowl for her reward. Naomi hated to have her hair messed with. But she loved B'Elanna so she put up with having her hair tussled.
Naomi took her favorite chair, right on Seven's lap. It had astonished the whole Voyager crew just how close the Borg and child had become. In fact, Naomi wanted to be just like Seven, and had started to mimic her words, mannerisms and study habits. Of course, to the little six year old, Seven was her best friend and hero all rolled into one.
Not unlike another alien girl hundreds of years in the past, named Cassandra Fraiser, who viewed Sam in the same light as Naomi did Seven of Nine.
"What's your name?" Naomi asked, addressing the small redhead.
"Janet Fraiser."
"Pretty name," Naomi said.
Janet winced, but only Sam would have noticed.
"Um, if you will excuse me. I.. need to use the facilities."
"Oh, over there against the back wall to the left." Naomi pointed.
"Thanks, sweety." Janet smiled and darted away.
Sam frowned
"Sam?" The child asked. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No honey. Its...well I think Janet is missing her daughter right now. Cassandra is just a little bit older then you are."
"Oh." Naomi looked down. "I didn't mean to make her sad."
"Oh, I know. And so does Janet," Sam winked. "I think I'll go see to her." With that, the tall blonde excused herself and departed the table.
It was only after the tall blonde disappeared, that the three remaining women and the child looked to each other.
"Captain, we must find a way home for them," B'Elanna said. "We have to make this work."
"With you two and Samantha Carter working together, there is no doubt in my mind that you'll make a way home for them," Janeway said. "Well, I too must leave." With a brisk and forever polite smile the Captain of Voyager departed, heading in the opposite direction from the ladies of the SGC.
A beat later.
"Are you sure I didn't do anything wrong?" Naomi asked her hero.
"I think perhaps that it is as Captain Carter explained. Doctor Janet Frasier was reminded of her own child that she is not now untied with and misses her. NaomiWildman you are not at fault here."
"Seven's right, Spike. Janet might be a little sad because if this doesn't work." A very excitable little girl cut off B'Elanna.
"Oh, Seven, B'Elanna, you have to make it work. I'd hate it if my mommy were lost."
In the mess hall rest room, Janet was leaning against the sink, her head bowed, causing her shoulder length red hair to fall forward and cover her face. But from the slight shudder of her shoulder's Sam knew that Janet was crying.
Padding up softly the tall blonde placed her hands upon the smaller woman's shoulders. "He-ey, " Sam said gently. "It's going to be okay."
"Sam..I am sorry. I must seem a little foolish..I just couldn't help but think of Cassandra. She's gone through so much already. To lose another set of parents.."
"It is not foolish, Janet. I thought of the same thing when I saw Naomi. It's natural to think of Cassie. I promise you we'll get home."
Janet turned and inhaled a deep sigh. She didn't flinch or shrug off her best friend's hands. There was always a deep respect, and deep friendship between the two women, and after these two years there was a level of love as well. There wasn't much one woman wouldn't do for the other. Including lending a shoulder to cry on and a discrete ear to listen.
Right now Sam simply held her dearest friend who allowed herself to cry until her fear of never returning to her daughter had been cried out. Although Cassandra, having been found as the sole survivor on an alien planet, was not born under Janet's heart the young girl was certainly born within it.
"You know...the other day when you and the rest of SG1 were away on P3R-636, she came to me. She knew something was wrong because...you were over due. Cassie read my unrest. I couldn't help but be worried for you Sam..er for SG1. You guys were gone for ten days...Daniel...well we know now he was telling lies about the rest of you. And I was more than worried about you Sam." Janet looked into her friends blue eyes before continuing.
"And Cassandra knew. She climbed up into my lap and held on to me. She asked me then if she could be granted a favor." The doctor's doe brown eyes glistened with tears. "Oh Sam, she asked if she could call me." Just the thought brought a smile to the doctor's face. "She wanted to call me mom!" Janet flashed another grin. "I m not Janet to her any more. I get to be Mom!"
"That's great, Janet!" Sam pulled her dear friend tighter to her chest, her arms holding on tighter. "I promise you Jan, that I will do everything I can so Cassie has her Mum back. Okay?"
Secretly Janet had to smile occasionally when she heard the slight British/Canadian accent slip into her dearest friend's speech, as did some English versions of familiar American words. Of course Samantha's mother was English, which explained Carter's use of 'British-isms'.
Seven and B'Elanna waited until they saw the tall blonde and tiny physician emerge from the privies before they proceeded to astrometrics. Another Voyager crewmember had also waited, little Naomi Wildman. The small child had wanted to make sure that the very pretty doctor was okay.
When the child saw Janet, she disengaged herself from her hero's lap and shyly stepped forword to the newcomers.
"You know," Janet turned to her companion, "that little one looks at Seven the same way Cassandra looks at you." Another smile. "It's as if you were responsible for hanging all the stars and moons and planets in the sky."
Sam chuckled.
"But." Janet drew the word out long, "she calls *me* mom," she beamed with an even brighter smile. " I'm MOM!" Janet giggled finally, feeling totally accepted by the little lost alien girl she took into her home and heart a year ago. She had adopted Cassandra willingly. And for a year she was Janet. Now she was 'mom' and Janet loved it.
Sucking in a deep breath, Naomi adopted her very best Seven of Nine pose. "I'm sorry if .I made you sad, Dr. Fraiser."
Janet's heart melted. She knelt down so she was eye to eye with the girl. "Oh honey... it's okay. See, I have my own little girl back home and I just miss her. You kinda reminded me of her."
"Sam and then Seven said that" the girl replied. "But I wanted to make sure you were okay." The young girl patted Janet on the shoulder.
"I'm okay now," the doctor winked. "I must say Naomi, you are a wonderful Captain's assistant."
With that the girl almost burst with pride. "Seven, helped me study and prove I could do the job. Captain Janeway said we are on a test period. But I think I can show her I'm a good Captain's Assistant. One day I will be captain. I figure by the time we reach the alpha quadrant Voyager will be under my command." The girl grinned proudly. "Well, it's gonna take Seventy years, so if there are any more kids born and stuff I'll be the oldest and, well, I'll have rank and with tons of study I'll be Voyager's captain by then."
"Ambitious goals," both Sam and Janet said together, thinking again of Cassandra who wanted to become a part of SG1 when she grew up.
"Well, Seven's helping me out. She's the smartest person on Voyager. And my best friend."
Janet turned to her blonde friend. "Just like you and Cassie," the doctor said with a slight tremor in her voice that caused Sam to once more place a comforting hand upon the tiny woman's shoulder. Without realizing what she was doing, Sam stroked the back of Janet's neck with the pad of her thumb. It wasn't until she heard a sharp intake of breath that the blonde realize just how intimate the gesture was.
Janet was almost regretful when she felt Sam's hand pull away. The touch, the softness, the exquisite feeling of love coming from her friend was enjoyable. Too enjoyable. Janet hadn't meant to sigh; she hadn't meant to feel the pleasure in the touch. What she felt for Sam was a lot more than she was supposed to. The blonde was her dearest and best friend, they were sharing the responsibility of raising Cassandra, and the three of them were almost a family. Janet didn't want to scare Samantha off because she was interested in a lot more. For two years Janet Fraiser had kept the fact that she was in love with Sam hidden and in one tiny moment she had almost let it slip
The doctor's heart hammered in her chest when she felt the hand snap away. She waited for some joke, some comment from Sam, but it never came. Instead she only saw the blonde beam a large smile at the girl who was leading them back to the table where Seven and B'Elanna were waiting.
Sam was mentally kicking herself. 'What the hell do you think you were doing, Carter! And if she figures out you...you what..that I'm gay? You're lucky she didn't slap you! Touching her like that..like.' Sam hid the sigh. 'Like I've wanted to forever. I'm in love with my best friend...stupid, stupid, stupid...hopefully Janet will think I was only trying to comfort her.' Another sigh escaped, hidden under the smile. 'But I was. I just want to hold her in my arms. Not as her friend, but.. Never going to happen, Carter... So get over it.' This time she couldn't hold back the sigh.
"Doctor Fraiser .." Naomi's voice thankfully drew attention away from them.
"Sweety, it's okay. You can call me Janet."
Naomi smiled brightly.
'Thank God for little pictures and their distractive natures,' Sam thought softly to herself.
"I...wanted to tell you not to worry," the child said. "Like I said, Seven is the smartest person in the quadrant, and I bet in all four of em. She's a genius and her and B'Elanna together will figure out a way to send you and Sam home," Naomi said with the same affection that Cassandra had for Sam.
"Well, Sam's pretty smart, too," Janet winked to 'her' blonde astrophysicist. "With all three of them tackling this problem there is no doubt that Sam and I will be back where we belong soon." Janet smiled a mother's smile at the young Kataarian.
B'Elanna liked this Sam Carter. She was all business; a 'skip the tour of the ship crap so we can get to work' personality. For three hours the Klingon couldn't help but give herself the luxury of watching the two scientists bounce ideas off one another once they had adjourned to Astrometrics.
B'Elanna threw in her own ideas, of course, but for the moment she and Janet flashed full prideful grins as they watched the astrophysicists debate the theories as to why they had traversed time.
"...no, I am positive that it's more than that," Sam said, countering Seven. "We'd been on that planet for a week and this was the only time the Guardian of Forever activated. There has to be a plausible explanation."
"You yourself spoke of the two gateways as super conductors and the Guardian of Forever storehouse-ing the residual energy of the Stargate," Seven pointed out.
"When I was at the Pentagon, there was a mission to Abydos. Afterwards we couldn't get the gate to work again, but couldn't find the reason. I couldn't believe I hadn't accounted for solar shift when using the addresses of the gate. The DHDs naturally realign themselves for that event, but the program I had written couldn't. I had to reinstall a new program that accounted for a thousand years of solar shift," Sam shrugged sheepishly.
"Um,.anyway, I was eventually asked by General Hammond to figure out different applications of the Gate, including time travel. What if a massive solar flare just happened to occur at the exact moment that we were traveling between another Stargate and Earth? If the wormhole itself was redirected closer to the sun because of the planet's magnetic field, the increased gravity could slingshot us back to said planet," Sam finished explaining.
"Why haven't we tried this before?" Janet asked.
"Because flares are impossible to predict. Light takes several minutes to travel between the Earth and the sun, so by the time a flare of sufficient magnitude has been confirmed, it's already too late," Sam answered.
"You're theorizing that by dialing coordinates on the opposite sides of the sun at the exact moment of a solar flare it causes the wormhole to turn back towards the outgoing Gate on itself and creates a time distortion," Seven said. "That is extremely plausible."
"But from what the Captain says, The Guardian of Forever already transports people through time," B'Elanna stated. "It's a quantum accelerator."
Janet thought of this as a medical issue. If two events happen in the body simultaneously, say a stroke and a heart attack, which event sets off the other? "Isn't it possible that the gate being dialed and establishing the wormhole and then looping through the solar flare was what triggered the Guardian of Forever to work? If we had gone through the Stargate we would have been sent back through time. Instead we went forward because we fell through the Guardian of Forever."
Janet held up her hand to stall the three other scientists who had questions in their expressions. "I know each gate is independent and the time travel occurrence is a separate singularity, but what if one is responsive to the other's activation in this event? As you said, the opening of the Stargate triggered a loop because theoretically it passed through a solar flare. If both gates are super conductors and your idea about a battery is correct Sam, then the Guardian of Forever did storehouse that energy but, like a naquaada fall out, it opened up a gate to expel the energy it was gathering."
Sam felt a surge of pride for her friend's grasp on the subject. The other two looked at the tiny physician with awe.
Janet shrugged. "You can't hang around miss genius over there without picking up a few things about quantum physics." There was a slight blush to Sam's cheeks in hearing Janet's admiration.
"And well, I cheated. I placed the issue in a medical context. One gate the heart and the other the brain. Was it a stroke that triggered the heart attack, or the heart attack that triggered the stroke? The fact remains that both happened to the body. Now I think the same happened here. Both happened to, well, the body...the wormhole. Now we have to contain the damage and try to reverse it."
'God, I could kiss you. That was brilliant!' Sam said in her mind. Now she was truly flushed, hoping no one would see her and comment on the redness in her normally pale cheeks.
Seven's ocular implant rose a little in a Vulcan like manner and her lover knew the ex-Borg was impressed. The Klingon engineer admitted to herself that she was too. Janet was indeed clever minded. The way Carter's mind worked, B'Elanna would have never guessed the tall blonde was from the late twentieth century. But then, of course, her exposure to the Twentieth Century had been via Tom Paris's Captain Proton and that was laughable.
Then again, Dr. Samantha Carter, Captain in the USAF, was doing things that those of her time believed belonged in science fiction. She was indeed a woman far ahead of her time and apparently so was the good doctor, Janet Fraiser.
"Captain Carter.. Perhaps in your time predicting solar flares was not possible, however with Voyager's abilities, predicting a flare is very possible. I can do so down to the nanosecond," Seven intoned with a bit of smugness that comes from well-deserved pride, as this lab was Seven's baby. She had designed the astrometrics lab and made it possible. This was something B'Elanna knew. She got the same feeling in Engineering every time she made advancements with Voyager's warp-core.
Sam was all grins. As soon as she had stepped foot in the Astrometrics lab on Voyager she was in total heaven. A child at a Harry Potter convention could not be as excited as Samantha Carter was in the lab. Janet knew that if there were ever a place of deep affection in the blonde's heart it would be quantum physics. Getting the astrophysicist out of the lab back home was almost impossible. The physician laughed to herself. 'Good thing she isn't my girlfriend or I'd be jealous over this lab.'
"We'll have to back track the records to July 24, 1998, the day when the flare happened on the planet, and then confirm a similar flare of significant magnitude," Sam said. "And of course figure a way to power the Stargate. We can manually dial the gate, but the power source is another matter."
"Sam," B'Elanna addressed the blonde. "You and Janet spoke of a DHD, the Dial Home Device."
"Yeah, I didn't see it with the Stargate," the young blonde said.
"We have uncovered some artifacts, some we brought aboard Voyager the others are still planet side. We can go take a look. Chakotay is on the planet's surface. We can have him look there as well."
Janet gave Sam a look that said 'what do you want to do?' They might be of equal rank but Sam was the 2IC of SG1 and thus decisions regarding what to do in the field were up to the younger woman.
"Let's go have a look," Carter decided. "If we can get a hold of the DHD, it will make things so much simpler and more controlled." This last bit was said mostly to Janet, who nodded her head. "I am a little concerned that if we can not have complete control over the gate's functions that we could inadvertently go further into time or further back than we want to and miss our window."
When Sam Carter said she was a little concerned about something it was time to stand up and take notice. It was generally something quite significant to if it ruffled the unflappable blonde scientist. Sam's little concern made Janet extremely concerned.
Voyager was considerably smaller than the Goa'uld motherships and after having seen the hanger bay with nearly a hundred Death Gliders, it was hard to impress Sam. Janet, on the other hand, had never been aboard a Goa'uld vessel and during the walk to Cargobay One she was very impressed by what she saw of Voyager. The white and blue of the ship's corridors was such a magnificent change from the dull gun-mettle grays and olive greens of the SGC that she felt more relaxed.
She couldn't help but watch Sam. The young blonde captain had not relaxed her guard since leaving the astrometrics lab. Switching from scientist mode to soldier mode was for Sam as easy as donning a jacket. The switch was so automatic that the doctor couldn't help but wonder if her friend was even aware of the change.
The blonde's hand automatically went to her side, but of course her weapon had been confiscated. Seven noticed the movement and said, "You and Dr. Fraiser are safe aboard Voyager."
Sam smiled. "Sorry, reflexes. It's standard protocol to be armed to protect ourselves when we're on off world missions."
"Yeah, it's the same with the Maquis, or hell, even on Klingon ships," B'Elanna said. "But Seven's right, you're safe here."
"In my experience when alien hosts say that, we usually end up in trouble," Sam said softly. It wasn't clear whether the young woman was talking to Janet, to herself, or to the Voyager women.
"Maquis...that's the resistance movement of the people against the nobility in French history," Janet said, redirecting everyone's attention.
"Yeah, well, the founder of the Maquis had a thing for Victor Hugo. It didn't matter to us where the name came from when we adopted it." B'Elanna admitted. "The belief is still the same. We had to do something ."
"B'Elanna, the Temporal Prime Directive," Seven warned her friend softly.
The Klingon rolled her chocolate eyes. How she hated temporal paradox.
"We understand," Sam stated knowing the dangers of going against the Grandfather Paradox. "It's okay."
Once they entered into the cargo bay, Sam and Janet wandered over to a long table where Commander Chakotay was labeling artifacts he and his team of archeologists and anthropologists had discovered. Some defiantly belonged to the La'Cota, others, like a ballpoint pen, belonged to SG1.
Sam snickered as she picked up a pen that only this morning she had seen Janet use to scrawl something in her medical journal. "Hey, Jan, lose something?" She tossed the pen to her friend.
Janet looked in the pocket of her canvas BDU trousers and frowned. The ink pen wasn't there. "I think it fell out when the tiger jumped us."
Chakotay chuckled. "Well, a few hundred years is a long time to wait to recover something."
The tiny physician turned to the speaker. "Well, if you really want it, knock yourself out." She tossed the ballpoint back to the first officer. The brunette shrugged and said, "Who knew that a ballpoint pen would become an artifact?"
"Like the man said, Janet, give it a few hundred years and anything can become priceless," Sam jovially teased.
"I guess so."
The two women laughed as if sharing a private joke.
B'Elanna shook her head and smiled as she watched the two out-of-time women tease one another. 'They make a good couple,' she thought. She had seen the unmistakable love passing between them. The engineer's dark eyes lifted to her own tall blonde astrophysicist and felt her own smile widen. 'Can we pick 'em or what, doc?'
Upon the table there was something else that looked as if it didn't belong to artifacts of the ancient tribal population. After seeing the zat'nicatel Janet had been carrying, B'Elanna couldn't help but wonder if the golden mesh artifact was something else that SG1 had lost. But this was something a little more complicated than an old-fashioned ballpoint pen.
Holding it and turning the golden device over it looked quite a bit like Seven's silver meshed hand. It had twin coiled strips of gold that bore the semblance of ribbons that would curl around the forearm when worn. In the center of the gold mesh was a gem. To a Klingon it was as a blood ruby.
"Hey, Sam. Any idea what this is?"
The young captain turned and paled when she saw the Ribbon Device in B'Elanna's hand.
"Whoa...that was amongst the artifacts?" Sam breathed.
"Yeah." B'Elanna said, pointing to the space on the table where she'd discovered it.
Sam moved to the Klingon's side and took the golden glove-like device from the caramel hand. Her blue eyes were wide in wonder, and a small sense of apprehension. The Goa'uld weapon felt oddly familiar in her hand.
"Sam..?"
The blonde didn't answer the diminutive doctor. She was fixated upon the Goa'uld weapon as she started to put it upon her right hand. It felt oddly familiar as the red gem nestled against the palm of her hand. Somewhere in Jolinar's memories Sam knew the Tok'ra had used the device against her enemies.
So intent upon the odd familiarity, Sam didn't notice the cargobay doors open or close. Nor did she notice the approach of Captain Janeway or the other crewmember.
But she felt something. Something surged within her, screaming for her attention. Sam immediately recognized that feeling for what it was. Blue eyes glanced up, targeted a woman with leopard spots on her neck, standing near Janet. It was all it took for the warrior to react.
The ruby flared with a life of its own. "Janet, Goa'uld!" Sam snapped.
Janet fell back and dropped to the deck of the cargobay. As she did, a beam of white-gold energy flared out of the ruby gem, striking the spotted woman in the chest. The force was so powerful it lifted her up several meters off the floor and slammed her hard against the far wall of the cargo bay.
Janeway had no idea what had happened or how. One moment she was standing by Ensign Ke'rel-Venka, and the next the Trill was sent across the cargobay by an energy beam.
B'Elanna tackled Sam to the ground, stopping and protecting her at the same instant. What ever it was that set the tall blonde off, B'Elanna knew it had to be serious. She saw so many similarities in Sam and Seven that she doubted, even in the short time she knew the young captain, that she would go off half-cocked.
"No! She's a Goa'uld!" Sam yelped, pinned under the superior strength of the Klingon. She had battled Jaffa and was accustomed to the superior strength of a foe. "I am sorry," she said softly, regretful for what she was about to do.
The red gem flared to life.
"Wait! Wait!!" B'Elanna yelled.
It was too late. Sam used a quarter of the power of the gem to fling B'Elanna off of her. Sam was up in the next instant, heading for the Goa'uld.
Janeway had gone to help Ke'rel-Venka to her feet. The Trill woman was badly bruised but alive. From the corner of her eyes, Janeway saw that Seven had successfully restrained the struggling blonde stranger.
"No! She's Goa'uld." Sam said. "I can feel it!"
"Let her go, Seven, its okay." Ke'rel-Venka said. "Please Captain, I understand. It's okay, let her go."
"Ke'rel." Janeway wasn't so certain she should allow the rampaging woman to be free.
"If you knew what she was talking about, you'd have done the same," Ke'rel said. "Just think if the Borg Queen suddenly appeared. You'd shoot first and ask questions later, am I right? Captain, let her go."
"Seven." Janeway ordered the tall ex-Borg.
Sam was immediately set down. Protectively Carter stood near Janet, placing her body between her friend and Ke'rel. The doctor knew that Sam could feel the presence of a symbiote, and trusted her explicably.
"Captain Carter," Ke'rel-Venka said softly. "I am not Goa'uld."
Blue eyes blazed in disbelief. "Tok'ra.?"
"Not exactly, but closer." The Trill smiled, trying to ease the young blonde captain aprehensions. When the Voyager crewman stepped closer, the green eyes brightened. "You were joined once!"
Sam silently nodded. "I was. She was Jolinar of Malkshur."
"And not by choice," Janet said. "Like the Goa'uld, the symbiote forced herself into Sam."
"For that experience I am sorry," Ke'rel-Venka said with true kindness. "It is no wonder you reacted as you did."
"Someone here want to tell me what the hell is going on?" Janeway barked.
The briefing table was crowded. Janeway was flanked by the time travelers, B'Elanna, the ex-borg, Ke'rel-Venka, Tuvok, Chakotay, and, of course, the Doctor.
"Captain." Ke'rel addressed Kathryn Janeway. "First let me try to place the essence of the gravity of the danger that Captain Carter and Janet Fraiser must be feeling. The name they spoke -- Goa'uld -- hasn't been heard for a long time, nor, for that fact, the Tok'ra. At least not with our sect."
The young dark haired Trill tried to smile at the two guests. "Several thousands of years ago there was a queen symbiote.. She betrayed the Goa'uld and separated from them. Her name was Egeria. She literally spawned the Tok'ra. The Tok'ra took up the battle against the System Lords of the Goa'uld. But before Egeria disappeared she had spawned another movement. In time that sect found the Trill home world where they made a pact with the Trill. Ours is even more of a symbiotic relationship than the Tok'ra.
"The Trill culture prepares a host from yearly youth as to what will happen. And only a few are chosen, those who are strong of mind, character and willpower are given the training to deal with the duality of life the symbiote brings. Samantha, what happened to you would never happen on Trill. Even if a symbiote is dying a host must be perfectly willing to join or the tragedy is too much for the symbiote and both will die. This is the legacy Egeria gave to her children. I can not imagine the horror of an unwilling joining."
"Are you saying a symbiote joined with Captain Carter?" The Doctor raised a photonic eyebrow. "Incredible."
"She...gave her life to save mine," Sam said slowly, and felt Janet's hand on her back, giving her strength. The memory was still so recent, so painful. For a week afterwards Sam had gone catatonic. By the week after that the depression was still there but manageable, enough so that Jack O'Neill had ordered her back to duty.
Janet did tri-daily checks on the young captain when she was on earth, making sure that Sam was still in good heath. The death of Jolinar had left Sam with a unique protein marker in her DNA and now she had naquaada in her blood, which was why the young scientist could detect the symbiotes. The serpentine lifeforms were naquaada based just as Humans were iron and Vulcans copper. The new changes in Sam had Janet concerned, but so far physically there were no adverse effects of the new protein marker or naquaada, save Sam healed a little faster and some medicines had little effect on her while others had none at all.
"Earth's greatest enemy is the threat of the Goa'uld. They destroyed countless worlds and enslaved entire populations. They came close to destroying Earth and we are at war with them," Sam admitted. "They take hosts against their wills. You're a prisoner in your own body watching as you commit atrocities, and there is nothing you can do about it. When Jolinar took me over I had to watch...I had to see my hands..pick up someone I loved and threaten her little life." Sam looked away ashamed. "I will never forget the look of terror on that little girls' face. But Jolinar had no choice when she forced herself into me. She was so desperate. Then she gave her life for mine. I am left with images, memories and thoughts that are not my own. Sometimes it's so confusing." Sam paused to collect her thoughts. Her listeners waited patiently, respectfully. "The Goa'uld are evil, Captain. I'm sorry I reacted to Ke'rel-Venka as I did, but all I felt was the symbiote. All I could think of was the threat and nothing beyond that."
Janeway thought about the similarities as she looked at Seven. Back home there would be a few Starfleet personnel who would shoot the tall blonde and ask questions later. They would consider Seven a threat and try to neutralize her, without giving the woman the benefit of the doubt even though Seven was no longer Borg. The steel blue eyes rested upon the Klingon-hybrid. And how long after the treaty with the Klingons did Starfleet, or the Federation as a whole, mistrust the warrior Empire? Janeway could definitely identify with Sam Carter's reaction to her crewmember.
"I know you can't go into how the Goa'uld were defeated," Sam said with a slight smile. "But apparently Earth survived. That's good to know."
Seven looked at the Ribbon Device laying in front of Tuvok. "Curious that you need naquaada in your blood for this weapon to be operational. But it works on the power of the mind, and emotion fuels it."
"I...don't know. I've never used one before." The blonde scientist turned to look at the Trill. "But when I saw you, Ke'rel-Venka, all I could think of was." Sam looked to Janet, "eliminate the threat."
B'Elanna hid her thoughts well. She couldn't help but wonder how much Sam's perception of Janet's assumed danger affected the blonde's reaction to the symbiote. B'Elanna knew that if any danger came to Seven, her gut reaction would be to cut that threat down and question later. Sam had done the same. Janet was near the Trill when the blonde captain activated the Ribbon Device.
'She certainly does love you, Janet. That is so obvious,' thought the Klingon. 'Can't say I blame her. I'd risk anything to protect my own BangwI.'
"Like I said, I understand," Ke'rel-Venka said. "But we are not your enemy. In fact, after these few thousand years and we don't even look like the Goa'uld anymore. We are not as draconian in appearance and have lost the dorsal fin and mandibles and multiple eyes." The Trill smiled. "In fact, I think we are much more aesthetically pleasing."
Both Janet and Sam chuckled softly as one does in embarrassing situations.
"Captain, I want to apologize for the disruption." Sam started, but stopped as Janeway held her hand up.
"Other than a few bruises, my crewmember is okay, and given some of the facts, it is understandable as to why you reacted as you did, Captain Carter. Military training isn't something a good solider abandons because she thinks she is amongst friendlies. We have some experience with seemingly friendly allies here in the Delta Quadrant who turned out to be enemies." The military mind of the Captain of Voyager could not fault the younger woman, not when she would have done the same thing, if their roles were reversed.
"Since the excitement is over, perhaps we should find a way for our guests to return home." Tuvok commented dryly.
"I agree," Chakotay commented. "I received word before the four of you came to the Cargo bay that your DHD has been found and will be transported into a quarantined lab in Engineering."
Janet felt as relieved as Sam had with news of the recovered DHD. Now there was no doubt at all in the young physician's mind that they would be going home soon. For the first time since being misplaced in time, Janet had a true sense of hope.
"Doctor Fraiser," the photonic physician said. "I was wondering if you would enjoy taking a look at our sickbay."
Janet had to smile. If sickbay was anything like the astrometrics lab she would love to get a glimpse of new medical technology.
Sam read the yearning in her friend's expression and shrugged. "We'll be busy in Engineering, Janet. Go a head, knock yourself out." Her grin conveyed her pleasure at knowing that Janet would enjoy the tour.
The brightness in Janet's eyes gleamed even brighter.
However, Sam was reluctant to allow Janet to go unprotected. Perhaps it was something Seven recognized for she stepped forward. "Dr. Fraiser, I will accompany you as B'Elanna and Captain Carter will be more than able to handle the DHD with efficiency without my aid."
Sam cast a grateful look to her tall blonde counterpart.
B'Elanna hid her grin; she didn't blame Sam at all for her protectiveness over Janet.
Unfortunately, the Doctor's ego was ruffled. "Now see here, Seven. Just because I am photonic doesn't mean I can't give a good tour of the ship and sickbay. ."
"Wait a minute," Janet interjected. "Photonic...like a hologram?"
Sam blinked and stared at the bald man in front of her in awe and wonder.
"He's solid," Janet said as she touched the arm of the EMH. "That's incredible."
"No kidding. A projected hologram with no silver halide coated plates, no photo polymer film." The astrophysicist said. "How is that possible? A solid hologram. I mean, they're only light and photons."
"Now see here. I am more than just light." The doctor sounded wounded.
B'Elanna tugged at the young captain's arm. "I'll explain it to you on our way to engineering. Sev, take care of Sam's partner." With that the Klingon escorted the extremely curious blonde to the turbo lift. "Or you might find yourself on the bad end of that ribbon device," the Klingon chuckled.
Janet grinned as she heard the woman she secretly loved start asking about the projection capabilities of Voyager and the holomatrix used to support the photonic physician. Then it hit her. B'Elanna had called her "Sam's partner." Something in her made the tiny doctor think that it wasn't used in the military context but something more personal.
'We aren't lovers,' Janet said to herself. She looked at Seven and B'Elanna and thought of what could be. Her dark doe-eyes drifted to the lean body of her friend. 'But I wish we were..'
Sam's thoughts had mirrored the young doctor's. 'Partner..why do I get the feeling you don't mean teammate? God...I wish. She's so intelligent, so beautiful. There is nothing more perfect than she is.. But she...it can never be.' Sam inwardly thought. 'Stop it Carter! Janet is your best friend. You can't get all 'libidinous' over her.'