#4 in the Life's Little Problems Series
Color Outside the Lines
A Little!Danny fic by: Maj. Cliffhanger
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Part 20
Landry stuck his head in the Locker Room door before entering. "Mitchell!" he greeted the other man with his typical exuberance, spotting his target. "Just the man I was looking for."
Cam and Teal'c exchanged glances. The two of them had just finished a little mid-morning workout in the gym - a safe way to vent the pent up frustration their earlier meeting with Woolsey had left them with. Cam quickly finished blousing his pants and turned to come to attention as the general approached.
Landry offered the move a grimace and quickly waved it aside. "At ease. Have either of you seen Col. Carter lately?"
"I ... think she was on babysitting-duty with Danny and Jason," Mitchell answered readily, assuming a relaxed parade rest before his C.O. Landry could be a little mercurial and Cam never really felt completely comfortable relaxing around him. "'Though if you tell any of 'em I said that, I'll deny it," he added with a slight grin. "Sir."
Landry chose to return the grin and Cam allowed himself to relax just a little bit more.
"Find her," the general ordered with a nod and held up a file he was carrying. "I need to speak with all of SG-1 - and Gen. O'Neill - pronto. SG-12 just got back from P8T-474 and it looks like we may have a time line for whatever it is the Ori are planning. According to the natives," he tapped the file and tucked it back under his arm, "this 'doomsday' the priors keep talking about may be only days away."
That was not the kind of news Cam wanted to hear. "We'll find her immediately and head to your office ASAP, sir."
Landry nodded. "I'll find Jack," he decided as he turned to leave. "He's probably off somewhere trying to hide from Woolsey. Oh!" He paused at the door and glanced back over his shoulder. "Bring Dr. Jackson with. We're going to need all the help we can get."
Cam nodded pensively as Landry turned away again. 'Definitely not the kind of news he wanted to hear....
* * *
Jason trotted along side Lt. Col. Carter as they hurried down the hall, thinking it a little funny how she tended to pull the two of them aside whenever someone else came along. Then again, it had felt more than weird when Dr. Lee walked through him. It hadn't hurt or anything, but it didn't really tickle either. It had simply felt ... wrong.
Really wrong.
Walking through walls and doors didn't seem to bother him - it kinda felt like walking through a gust of wind - but walking through people felt weird, so he didn't fight her anytime she went to pull him aside.
He glanced up at her now. "You said we were out of phase," he repeated what she'd said earlier - well, he was pretty sure that's what she'd said. "What does that mean?"
"It means we're in an alternate dimension," Danny answered from where he walked rapidly on her other side. "We can see and hear everything around us but we're no longer a part of that reality."
"Um ... not exactly," Col. Carter corrected him. "We're still a part of this reality; we just can't interact with it the way we're use to. An alternate reality is one in which something is different from our own - for instance, if President Lincoln was never shot or Germany won WWII--"
"--Or the Stargate wasn't discovered," Danny added quickly.
The lieutenant colonel squeezed his hand and gave him a brief smile. "Or the Stargate wasn't discovered," she agreed, "reality would be very different from what we know. In an alternate dimension, however, reality stays the same - we're the ones who've changed."
"Weird," Jason decided. "And that device back in Dr. Lee's lab is what changed us? What happens if we can't get back?"
"We'll get back," Col. Carter insisted, offering his hand a reassuring squeeze even as they hurried along. Then she glanced up and they came to a sudden halt. "General!" she offered, sounding relieved.
Jason glanced up as well to see the older guy who'd come to the planet with Col. Carter and the big black guy to rescue him and Danny rounding the corner ahead. He was in deep conversation with another shorter man with a little darker hair who had stars on his shoulders so Jason figured he must be a general too - though he was dressed nicer than the first who was just in a green uniform like Jason's dad sometimes wore.
"Are we glad to see you, sir," Col. Carter continued quickly.
But neither man looked up at her words. They just kept walking - right through them.
Jason shuddered and dropped Col. Carter's hand to turn around and watch the men retreating. "Hey!!!" he shouted after them - but got no response.
"It's no use, Jason," Carter sighed despondently. "They can't hear you."
"But I thought you said--"
"--We must be in a different dimension from the one Jack was in before," Danny decided, sighing as well.
"An alternate alternate dimension?" Jason asked, confused.
"Something like that," Col. Carter agreed.
"Oh," Jason offered simply as the man they'd been hoping could help them disappeared around another corner. He glanced up at the woman beside him. "What do we do now?"
* * *
Sam was saved from having to answer Jason by the sudden sound of a klaxon blaring forth its warning and the base-wide announcement of, "Unscheduled off-world activation!"
Hastily, she pulled the two boys aside again just as Jack and Gen. Landry reappeared and hurried back the way they'd come, sweeping right past the trio without seeing them. Hesitating for only a moment, she grasped two little hands firmly and quickly followed in the generals' wake. Neither man would likely approve of the action, she knew, but at the moment she didn't know what else to do! She couldn't just leave the two kids somewhere while she tried to figure this out.
Oh, she was going to be in so much trouble when everyone figured out they were missing....
The control room was a scene of calm anxiety - as usual whenever there was an unscheduled off-world activation. Whether it was an SG team returning early or an attempted alien attack, such activity almost never boded well. Sam and the kids followed close behind the two generals, trying to avoid the busy technicians who were quickly and efficiently concentrating on their duties.
"Chief," Landry quickly addressed CMSgt Harriman at the gate controls, drawing to a halt directly behind the seated man. "What've we got?" he asked succinctly.
"No IDC, sir," the chief gate technician replied, working his controls, "but I am receiving a radio signal."
"Let's hear it," Jack ordered simply.
Everyone in the room frowned as whatever message was being relayed came out horribly garbled.
"What's wrong with it?" Landry wanted to know.
Sam answered automatically. "Sounds like harmonic distortion in the data stream, sir--"
"--Not sure, sir." Harriman shook his head, his words stepping on the end of hers as she grimaced in frustration. It was obvious no one had heard her.
"Can you clean it up?" Landry asked, even as the man worked at adjusting his equipment.
"I can try, sir," he replied.
Suddenly, a rather loud and distinctive 'bang' had everyone glancing through the glass into the gate room.
"What was that?" Jason asked, craning his neck to see past all the shoulders and butts in his way. He frowned in frustration of his own.
"Okay," Jack offered the obvious, "something just hit the iris...."
"Something bigger than a rock." Landry again glanced down at Harriman. "Get the analysis team back in here to run a sweep for any residue - and run whatever other tests you can to determine exactly what it was."
Harriman offered a preoccupied nod. "Sir."
Landry sighed at the gate, knowing there would be no immediate answers, then turned away, heading for his office.
"And get Carter down here to help clean up that message!" Jack added before turning to join him.
Sam threw her head back and grimaced, even as she quickly pulled the boys aside again. She was already here - they just didn't know it.